The Lies of the Heart
by Emmie1
Summary: Trying to live normal lives after meeting aboard a pirate ship, Inuyasha, Kagome and Miroku find that a hard thing to do when Sango is kidnapped and taken to the demon realm where Naraku rules. AU InuKag MirSan
1. Happily Ever After?

**Title:**   The Lies of the Heart

(In keeping up with the corny Harlequin Romance titles! ^^)

**Rating**: R, for naughty Inuyasha and Miroku language, and sex…. Oh, and violence. ^^  What can I say?  They're pirates!

**Authors:**  In alphabetical order: Emmie1 and the Personification of Fluff

**Disclaimer:**  Do we own Inuyasha and all affiliated characters?  No.  However, we would like to start a monthly payment plan so I can get Miroku, and Emmie can get Inuyasha, Sesshy, and Naraku. (One is never enough!  They're like Lays potato chips!)

**Summary:**   This takes up where 'Love and Treachery at Sea' leaves off.  Hopefully, you've read it. ^^  If not, go read it now, and if you have, hopefully you remember that wonderful little cliff hanger we left you with.  Yes, I am evil.   Inuyasha, Kagome and Miroku encounter trouble after trouble when Sango is kidnapped and taken to the demon realm.  They of course have to go save her, but sadly, Naraku still rules there, and he doesn't quite like the idea of a Priestess being in his land.  Can two romances made on a pirate ship last in the face of kidnapping, war, and brainwashing?  Watch for special guest appearances!  

**AN:**  We're back!  Fluff here, introducing our new fic!  We hope that you all like it, and find it as entertaining as the first!  Once again, a nice long, fat chapter, that we hope that all Mirosan, as I have started seeing them called, fans will enjoy!  Hoorah for flashback chapters! Kindly read and review, as we love comments and Emmie needs a reminder to update!  (Just kidding, Em, I know that you are busy and actually have a life… unlike me….)  ENJOY! ^_^

**Chapter One: Sango and Miroku**

As inviting as Kagome's kitchen was, Miroku could not help but think back to that morning and waking up with Sango in his arms.

Sango was already awake.  She was a demon killer, and kept long hours.  Sometimes Miroku wondered how she could find the energy to keep up with him, or to still be happy when she was occasionally living off of four hours of sleep.  Sango was up with the dawn every morning, but rather than get up, she'd often stay in the bed roll they shared and watch Miroku sleep.

'He looks so much gentler when he's not awake,' she always thought to herself.  'Like a big kid or something.  He certainly doesn't look like the kind of guy who would have tried to sell his soul for more power.  He looks. . . .'  And she was never able to finish that thought.  Sango could never find the proper words to describe Miroku.

Miroku had often felt her move over him and would open his eyes to look up at her. That morning was no exception, only this time he remembered that she hadn't been drinking any of the Sake the night before, so he couldn't help but reach out to her. And do the most unexpected thing, without any arousal at all, he pulled her to him and just held her there close to his chest, so that he could feel her heart beat and hear her blood rush. 

His Buddha beads gentle not to hurt her skin, he kept her tightly against him. "You should sleep in." Miroku told her softly after a while, his hands smoothing her hair back away from her face so he could gaze up at her. "How can you be so delicate and so strong?" Miroku had asked his thoughts out loud, the same thoughts he thought admiringly each morning when he gazed at his wife.

Though not the same thoughts he had each night when he watched her sleep. They kept different hours. She liked being more awake during the day time, he the night. It was a matter of habit he told himself, grinning at the thought: How she had changed him. She almost made him regret selling his soul, almost made him want to go buy it back. Almost…

 Miroku pushed those thoughts away as he massaged her shoulders. "There aren't any demons around for you to slay today."

"There haven't been any demons for awhile," she sighed.  Sango wasn't sure if it was a sigh of happiness or if she was sad there wasn't anything to fight.  She'd spent so many years trying to find the demon that had killed her family, and now she had.  Miroku may have played a part in his banishment, but Sango couldn't help feeling that she had done nothing.  What had she done?  She'd almost gotten herself thrown overboard, that's what she had done.  

But the point was that Sesshomaru was gone, and so she hadn't taken the potion last night.  In fact, she hadn't drunk anything last night, which somehow just made it all the more interesting.  And what made it interesting was that the possibilities were literally endless.  She kissed his nose, wrinkling hers as she smiled down at him.  "In that case, Miroku, what do you feel like doing today?  We're near the ocean. We could hang around until night time and go skinny dipping."

Miroku laughed and shook his head. "There is a festival in the town, for the new harvest. I heard there would be fire works, and I want to show off my wife." He told her, wondering if they could manage that AND skinny dipping.

"A festival?"  Her eyes began to glow.  "You mean the one at the fishing village, don't you?  Does that mean we can stop in and see Kagome and the others?"  She nuzzled his chin, a pleasantly fuzzy feeling filling her heart as her mind lingered on the words 'my wife'. "Please, Miroku?"

"Convince me," he teased, even though those were his plans. Sliding his hands down to hers he nodded. "I know you miss Kagome, and I haven't seen Inuyasha in a while, plus I want to laugh at him. I have been hearing rumors about the Priestess's demon lover," Miroku joked. "But be sure to wear something that you don't mind getting wet," Miroku told her, smelling the salt air. "We have a swimming date for later."

She arched an eyebrow.  She doubted that Miroku would want to be teasing Inuyasha about being a "demon lover" if he'd heard the same rumors as she.  She looked at their bags.  "I don't think I have a lot of choice in what I wear."  Now that they were back on the road, she was back to living out of her travel bags.  

Her mare snorted, as if agreeing that she didn't need more clothes as it would be more work for her.

A small frown passed over her lips as she looked around them.  Their horses stood guard, the fire was still smoldering.  Their bags were covered in dew from the early morning air, but things were at least dry and warm in their bedroll, which they had unrolled on the softest patch of ground they could find.  And it would probably be fish again for lunch.

"I guess that if we're honestly going to be trying to start a family, we should find a place and settle down.  A nice little house out in the country, so that my horse can retire."  She toyed with his fingers as she thought.  "Think we could find a place by Kagome's like that?"

Miroku nodded. "I'll talk to Inuyasha about finding some land and building there," Miroku promised her, liking that they were talking about the future; about them. That it was around settling down, settling down also meant a family which meant- Miroku grinned and leaned forward, his hands caressing Sango's perfectly flat stomach. "What do we call him?" Miroku asked dipping his head to kiss her bare shoulder.

She laughed, and began to trace little circles on the tips of his fingers.  With the right action she knew that they could be a very sensuous spot.  Why did Miroku have to have all the fun all the time?  

"Who says it's going to be a him?" she demanded, only pretending to be angry. Sango wouldn't mind a little girl that she could teach to be strong and independent, just like herself and Kagome.  Too many girls were content to sit around at home and become good mothers!  But then, wasn't that what Sango herself was planning on doing after she had a kid?  

Miroku let out a contented sigh and moved her fingers up to his mouth for a kiss. "A son first. Then girls, all beautiful like their mother and then more sons," Miroku said probably startling her. They hadn't ever talked about the number of children they wanted.

Laughing, she returned his kiss.  Her leg rubbed against his, as if she were trying to get more comfortable.  "And just how many kids were you planning on having?" she inquired softly.  "And how were you planning on feeding them all?  I'm having trouble picturing you working as a fisherman or a blacksmith.  Although I know you have enough strength to be the later."  As if to illustrate the point, she lifted her hands to his biceps and rubbed his arms.  How was it that she could always feel so safe in those arms, when none had ever sheltered her before, as she had no need of them?  She settled on a number.  "Let's have six.  No, eight.  Three girls, three boys, and a pair of twins that could be either."

Miroku groaned. Sango was definitely his undoing.  From making him a rogue pirate to actually settling him down to getting a damn job. Bringing her to sit down on his lap, Miroku leaned his forehead against her forearm and thought about it. He liked the idea. Eight children. Twins. Well, they better start working on it right away if they wanted to be young parents! One hand caressing her knee up to her thigh, Miroku smiled warmly. 

"As long as they are ours and take after their mother," Miroku said reaching up to lower her head to meet his for a kiss, pulling her over him. "I'll be a monk. I'll work as a monk, casting off evil spirits, selling charms, working at altars.  I... I'll make you happy, you won't be in need of anything, Sango," Miroku promised, deciding he'd leave the fact that he WAS a pirate on the side and thus he HAD treasure stashed away. Let her think he worked hard for their living. Yeah.

Sango grinned, watching his hand as it moved over her skin.  He had such nice hands… it was almost a shame he always had to keep one of them hidden all the time.  But he had more than enough skin for him to tease.  "Take after me?  What about taking after their strapping father?  Or were you just trying to sweet talk me again?"  She settled over his body, moving her gaze up to his blue eyes.  Sango's smile slowly filled with love.  "Whatever we name our kids, let's not name them Miroku Jr.  I can't imagine a kid being stuck with such a horrible, silly, roguish… ack!"  She stopped teasing him when he gave her posterior a pert pinch.

            Miroku ducked away from her slap. "I'd like to call the first born after my father." Miroku confessed, his eyes looking past Sango at something etched in the past, before refocusing on her in the present, and his future. "I don't need to sweet talk you, I know what you really feel about me - Sake is the key to you." Miroku said wondering how she would look with a belly. He couldn't help himself. He liked the thought. His hand once again passed over her flat, well toned stomach. "So, you think I'm strapping?"

"Well, I suppose that I also could have said devious or handsome, considering that I don't really know the definition of the word 'strapping', but I think it sounds right."  She also thought that it was sweet that he wanted to name their baby after his father.  

That word –sweet- could be used to describe Miroku too, but she'd never say it to his face.  How come she could imagine him showing up with a bouquet of flowers for her?  But there the sweet Miroku ended as he probably would have taken advantage of her arms being busy to sweep her off her feet and carry her into some private place and proceed to make love to her until both of them were sore.

'It almost doesn't sound right, me being in love with someone like that, but I am,' she thought, as she told him that she would be honored to have her child be named after Miroku's father.  One day she'd have to drag some stories out of him.  She wanted to know everything about him. 'Thank God being a demon hunter taught me some patience!'

Miroku watched her closely. "My Lady Sango, what in the world is going through your mind?" he asked, practically seeing the wheels turn there in.

"I want to know about you," she said, sounding almost shy.  "I have so many questions!  Why did you decide to become a monk?  Why do you look past me when you talk about your parents?  Why did you decide to sell your soul?  How did you end up on the pirate ship?  How did you become friends with Inuyasha?"  

He silenced Sango with a kiss but she pushed him gently back down on the ground.  Her eyes began to turn sad, and her voice was possibly the gentlest that she'd ever had it.  "Miroku, why do you keep on calling yourself soulless?  I can't believe that it's true.  I can't, because otherwise why else would I be in love with you?  What else would cause me to feel this way about you, if it wasn't for the fact that right from the start I've seen somebody who was brave and selfless?"

Miroku was touched. An odd warmth growing in a place he didn't know it could. It touched him. It made him want... Miroku leaned up and kissed her. He really was in love with her, he didn't just love her: he was IN love with her. Sighing, he figured it best to answer everything short and to the point now. 

"My grandfather was a monk, so was my father. It runs in the bloodline. I can feel Buddha's holy powers," he explained and moved on. One point at a time. "I don't want to look at you and think of sad memories, you are only good ones," he confessed. "I sold my soul for power," he answered shortly. "I ended up on the one ship with people going against Naraku. They wanted to take him down, and I joined them. Inuyasha and I had a mutual understanding from the first day.  We're as strong as the others, but don't fit in. Friends kicked away from the clique," he explained not giving away more of Inuyasha's own tale. It was his. "My price for power will come when I die and my soul gets devoured... I rather think of myself without a soul now, so that I won't regret missing it later," Miroku explained and kissed her. "I don't need one anyway, now that I've got you. You are my new soul."

Blinking, she realized that there were tears in her eyes.  She closed her eyes tightly and leaned on his chest.  She'd never thought that he would say something like that.  Never!

It touched her more deeply than she'd have ever thought possible.

Sango dried her cheeks and tilted her head to kiss him back; giving the hand with the Buddha beads on it a squeeze.  If that was what he had given up his soul for, then she doubted she could ever hate it or any other powers he'd gained, knowing that he looked at her and didn't just see a wife or a demon killer but something eternal as well.  She felt all her love for him pouring out of her as she let her lips wander over his.

Grinning, she slipped out of the bag.  What should she care that she was naked?  Let Miroku have the view!  They were in the middle of nowhere, and she doubted that the grazing horses would care that she was naked.  She pulled their favorite scroll out of the bag and then climbed back in beside Miroku.  She unraveled it, and looked at the pictures.  "I believe that it's my turn to choose.  I think we should try this one.  They say thirteen is a lucky number, so maybe this will be the one that'll give you that son you want so much."

Okay, sure, so it was dawn, but without any demons to slay she had a lot of pent up energy!

Miroku actually gaped at Sango. His mouth dropped wide open. Not only for the excellent view she gave him, although it was most assuredly part of the jaw dropping, but the fact that she brought the scroll, chose the pose... Offered a son. He didn't really know why it mattered to him so much, but it did. Thinking about 'sons' Miroku couldn't help but remember his father, how he had died, and the knowledge that he too would probably die soon once he had his revenge on Naraku. It made him want an heir. Someone to continue the bloodline, someone who would look like him. Miroku quickly corrected that last thought as he collected Sango in his arms, shifting her weight just so as he got up onto his own knees. 

He wanted them to look like her. 

More then anything, he found himself lately wanting to just simply create a life with her. Who would've guessed that from some perverted stalking he would actually fall in love and find someone who was his equal on so many levels? Spreading his hands over her back, he moved his hands over it. 

"You never stop amazing me. From where you keep your swords and how you use them, to how much you can make me desire you with one single look," Miroku breathed against her lips as he leaned close to kiss her deeply.

The feeling was returned whole heartedly.  Miroku sometimes just had to look at her a certain way, and she had to resist the urge to jump on him.  She allowed herself to be lost in the kiss, practically melting against him.  Sango opened her mouth to his, Miroku's breath sweet on her skin.  Propping herself up on one hand, she let the other absentmindedly doodle on his chest and stomach.  Her tongue dueled with his in love as much as it did in conversation, proving to him once again that she was his equal in every way, even if she didn't have to go around hitting on every man she saw.

Although Sango was pretty sure that whatever it was he did that made her breath catch and the world feel safe was pure Miroku, and could not have been taught but only freely given.

Their clothes still laying discarded –'Mental note: make sure to dust out my clothes before I put them on.'  Sango didn't want to get dressed only to find that her clothes had developed spiders overnight- she let herself enjoy the feeling of her skin against his.  When she felt his growing excitement, she gently rolled off him and lay beside him, her legs still tightly wrapped around his.  She laughed foolishly, as she stopped kissing him to stare at him.  Miroku really did like to feel that, did he?  She lifted his hands off her derriere and placed them on her hips before lowering her head and kissing his chest, not quite through showing him just how much she knew.

When he hissed as she bit him, she barely heard him growl before he had pulled her away and proceeded to repay the favor.  She heard herself moan as Miroku all too eagerly demonstrated that he was not as concerned with everything below the equator as she had originally thought.

Suddenly Sango found she couldn't wait anymore, but would Miroku take advantage of her in this relaxed state to try and create their first child? No.  'The bastard!  That stupid, perverted idiot!  Making me want him and then he tries to turn it into a bloody marathon!  How the hell can he keep it up so… oh.  That feels good.'  She relaxed even more as his hands wandered back down and his lips took over.

He heard her breathing quicken, while his own was still as normal as it was he was sleeping.  Sango let go of her emotions too quickly.  He grinned mentally as she moaned his name.  For as sweet as her voice was, damn she had long nails.  His grin turned into a wince when he let her recuperate for a second as he glanced over at the picture she'd chosen.  Okay, so they had the sideways thing down already.  He blinked.  'Damn.  Can she even bend like that?'

As if hearing his unspoken query, she shifted, and proved that she indeed could.  But this just gave him even more access, and he quite gladly pleased her some more before he….

Then he realized that he was pinned.  'When the fuck did this happen?'  He forgot the question as she grinned at him before leaning over to bite at his bottom lip, rolling it between her teeth teasingly, making him wonder if she was just trying to piss him off or if she was actually going to kiss him.

'The poor boy should have realized that I wouldn't let him do that to me if there wasn't going to be some kind of payback.'  She kept her eyes watching his as she let her mouth brush his slightly now and then, teasing him.  His eyes shut as she touched him, and she giggled.  Sango's laughter was quickly silenced as he broke free of her pin, and they just so happened to conveniently find themselves in the position she'd chosen: lucky number thirteen in the scroll.  She'd bet anything that the jerk had planned it all along!

There was a smile in his voice as he kissed her throat.  "I don't think so, Sango.  We'll save that one for later.  Do that now and I don't think I could wait any longer."

Sango made a note in her mind to try that again and circled it several times.

Her thought was nearly forgotten as he kissed her passionately, and pushed himself forward.  Her response was well known and earnest, as she met him with each action.  They stared at each other lovingly, as they entered into a pace that they knew well by this point, and that did not change no matter what scroll they used.  Their breaths were too fast for words, but their eyes said everything.  Sango held him tightly as he slowed; letting himself enjoy the sensation of their unity on each level he could before the roller coaster of emotions started again.

The horses, used to such morning and nightly, and sometimes even noontime displays, continued grazing. The only sign that gave that they even knew something was going on, was what could only described as an equine wince as they finished in a loud and gratifying display of courtship.

Sango let Miroku curl up against her.  She was sore, but Miroku had to be tired.  It seemed the thought about this one being the one that would get him a male heir had greatly encouraged him.  Sango smiled; like Inuyasha, she hadn't quite gotten used to controlling the "morning after" glow.  

She brushed his hair away from his face and dried his forehead.  "I hope this means that you're not going to start thinking of our sex life as work, Miroku, love."

Miroku panted, still fighting to catch his breath. Everything about Sango stole his away from him. And after the exercise they just had... Miroku doubted if he'd be able to catch his breath again for the rest of the day. It had never felt that way for him. He couldn't really explain why it was, but this time he actually felt as though he had soared. 

Looking flushed, Miroku leaned down and kissed her, shifting their positions so that she was under him, balancing himself on his elbows so he didn't crush her, he was careful not to separate himself from her. He didn't want to. More then anything else, he wanted to remain one with her for as long as possible. 

"I..." Miroku began, his lips pulling in a damn grin. For the first time in ages, in... Thinking about it, Miroku understood for the first time since he had actually made the deal for his soul, he was happy. He had achieved what many only dreamt of. Feeling a response to his heart's swelling, Miroku moved his hands down to her hips, holding her closely against him. 

Dipping his head, Miroku kissed her neck, her shoulder, everywhere his lips could reach. He wanted to cherish her with everything he had in him. Groaning, Miroku knew that today from one their encounters she would get pregnant. He could feel it. He didn't know how to describe it. But he felt unbridled, just like his passion. As though the love connected with the act was all it took. 

"I think this is the first time," Miroku whispered in her ear. Carefully moving, taking his time, a completely different rhythm then their usual one. "I've never understood before," Miroku whispered, though quite raggedly against her cheeks. 

"Sango," he whispered and kissed her lips, taking a while before speaking again. For a while in fact, he didn't think he could.

Searching out for her hand, Miroku grasped it and pressed it against his wildly beating heart. "You're my first," he said, all the more grateful now for the Sake that had caused her to marry him, to lay with him then, to make her accept him those first few nights. "Here," he said flattening her hand against his chest. 

The horses stood on the side. The mare raised her head, disdainfully chewing on a long stem of grass.

The stallion huffed.

The mare chewed.

Then they both lowered their heads to eat again.

Kissing her fully on the lips, Miroku licked her bottom lip and once again dipped his head to kiss her everywhere possible. "Sex with you will never be work. Until you're rounded with our child, then we'll just have to work at new positions. That's all." He said, his usual self back, trying hard to quench down the silly grin and dumb bright glow about him. 

The stallion seeing the 'I-had-sex' look on his riders face huffed again and nudged the mare. 

The mare in return made a sound and turned down to the water bed to drink.

Well, at least one male was getting some.

'I should probably tell him,' she thought, knowing what he was thinking with an uncanny third sense.  But his kisses were too fervent and too close to give her a chance to tell him.

Nor did she have a chance to tell him on the third go.  Or on the fourth, and by the sixth she just had to start wondering if maybe she should save it for his birthday.  Finally, Miroku seemed to have run out of energy by the seventh time they had intercourse, which was good because she was starting to feel tired too.  Sango wondered if it was even possible to do it so long if she weren't in love with him so.  Now the grin that not only showed her love, but that she was a very satisfied woman, was positively radiant.  Sango kissed him passionately, but not deeply as she dared not risk making him think she was not satiated yet.

She crawled out from under him, wishing she could stay in the blankets with him.  "You stay here and rest.  I've got to go and do some washing."  Not to mention some relaxing!  

She was about to leave when she suddenly remembered something. Sango smacked him upside the head very gently.  She would have done it harder, but somehow she couldn't bring herself to hit Miroku any harder.  "That was for all the groping you did!"  How many had he done, exactly?  She'd lost track by round three of their early morning exercise.

Miroku wasn't phased by anything. In fact, he doubted that anything, ANYTHING, could ruin his good mood. He looked like a silly teenager after the first time, as he watched her collect her things. "Would you like me to join you?" he asked, though didn't dare get up. He doubted he could. He had never worn himself out this much.  Over woman. For one woman, rather. Laying back, with his arms folded under his head, Miroku watched her with delight. "You aren't nervous, are you?" Miroku asked realizing that this was all done without the Sake. Maybe Sango had thought he was joking about a family, maybe she was still under the influence when she agreed to stop drinking with him...

Her face softened, and she lowered the hand that had been about to smack him for suggesting that he join her.  Sango finished wrapping one of their blankets around her body to kneel down beside him.  "Miroku…" She sighed, as if talking to a little kid.  That grin looked so cute on him.  "The most I'm worried about is how cold the water's going to be," she confessed. "Okay, and of morning sickness too, but I wouldn't have agreed to have carried your kids if I didn't want to carry them."

And then she decided to tell him.  Perhaps it was a little cruel, as he was already so deliriously happy, but she couldn't hold it in any longer.  Sango smiled at him.  "You're thinking that I got into this whole mess with you because you got me piss drunk and then you decided to kidnap me instead of having a long engagement, but that's not true, Miroku.  I may have been drunk enough to not remember the wedding ceremony, but I wouldn't have stayed with you if I didn't feel a natural partnership with you in the first place.  Why else do you think I put up with all the groping?"

"Because you like it and are later rewarded?" Miroku asked reaching out to bring her down to him. Wrapped in a blanket or not, he could still feel her curves. Or maybe his hands were simply so use to feeling them, his mind was already imagining it. Miroku thought about what she said and smiled warmly, deeply touched by these simple words. "Thank you." He said wondering how soon it would be before they knew. 

Maybe, for good measure, he shouldn't let her go and trap her in this blissful meadow until they were sure... Looking around, Miroku found himself. A pirate. A shipman. A man use to the waves and the lull of the waves, considering building a house. This place was nice, not too far out of town. But no, he'd built them a closer home. 

"So, want me to lather your back?" He asked pulling at one of the scrolls that actually described a similar situation. No words needed be said, he simply wiggled his brows at her instead.

She giggled and flicked his forehead.  "Pervert."  Then she thought about his question.  "Tomorrow morning," she promised. "I just don't know how much more I can take."

And then she kissed him again and disappeared in the bushes that surrounded their quaint little campsite, heading for the stream they had gotten the water from last night. 

Miroku fell back onto their make shift bed, his arms pillowing his head. Closing his eyes, Miroku's imagination trailed back to earlier hours. Sighing, Miroku opened his eyes to look up at the sun in the high noon sky. Sango looked like an angel, he realized and wondered if it was possible that she might actually be one. But remembering the way Sango slayed demons, he crushed that thought. Groaning, Miroku sat up and noticed the sun really was high up in the sky... 

"I must've fallen asleep." Miroku said sitting up. He collected his robes and draped them over himself. Standing up, Miroku used his staff to help him stand. Who would've known he could feel this weak? "Note to self, next time you sell a soul, sell it for something better then a hole in your hand," Miroku muttered and looked around. Really looked around. "Sango?" he called out.

After a long search, without any results Miroku concluded she must've left him to sleep and headed on ahead. He refused to accept the other dreads about her disappearance.  After all, her things were missing... 

Looking at his horse, Miroku groaned. "I do not think I can ride you, if I am to have children," Miroku told the beast as he gained the reins and lead him down the road towards the village, undoubtedly where Sango had gone. Of course. "Not after a day like today," Miroku said, setting his jaw into place, almost breaking a molar. 

This wasn't Sango. Something was wrong.

When Miroku had arrived at Kagome's house he found out that his comrades had not seen his wife.  Still, he refused to believe that something horrible had happened.  After all, she had left with a smile on her face and a sway in her walk that implied she was a dancer instead of demon hunter. Glancing outside, he saw that his horse was still shuffling nervously.  Both of them had been doing that since they had left the campsite.  Too bad the horse couldn't speak!

And then the fox-demon had run in and screamed that Sango had been kidnapped. 


	2. Starting out on a journey

**AN:** A bit in delay... I know... GOMEN!!! See, PoF is away from school and working, enjoying life, living free and happy with her friends and probably have a much better time then me at work right now... So she hasn't been around to harass me about updating... See the trouble you get when you don't have something nagging at you?  
  
Anyway, I apologize the update took so long but it's an uber long chapter, with a very interesting plot turn, you won't want to miss it! I hope you all enjoy it, please read and review, let us know what you think!!!  
  
Btw, we are _DELIGHTED_ to see that our readers from the first tale have joined us for the sequel... Hope you like this one as much as _Love and Treachery At Sea_!  
  
**Disclaimer:** Oh, and as usual we do not own Inuyasha, though in an open auction we would most likely be the highest bidders for him... and Miroku too (  
  
= = =  
  
**_Chapter Two!_**  
  
Inuyasha picked Shippo up and set him on the table, so that everyone could see him. "Spill, squirt."  
  
Shippo took a deep breath. "Well, I was. . . ." And then he remembered that Miroku had seen him. "Okay, so I kind of went and used my allowance money to buy some candy during our lunch break. But on my way back, I was accosted by this guy and he said that Sango had been kidnapped, so I came right here."  
  
"Eating your candy on the way, I bet, so that we wouldn't know you've been pumping yourself up with sugar. You're going to turn into a fat fox demon, Shippo, if you keep that up." Inuyasha poked him, trying to keep the younger demon's spirits bright. Then his hand went back to rubbing Kagome's shoulders.  
  
Miroku's face seemed taunt and nervous. He was looking through everyone into the distance. An inner battle of accusations was raging within him.  
  
'I should've been with her' was the single sentence flying about in his head.  
  
Kagome raised her hand to Inuyasha's, stopping his movements. Lifting her chin, Kagome smiled up at him lovingly and gave his hand a light thankful squeeze. "Shippo? What man was it who accosted you? Was he from the village?"  
  
The little demon shook his head and then reached into his pocket, and pulled out a barely visible demon, but Inuyasha recognized him. "Myoga, one of my father's courtiers. Seeing as how we're not in a battle right now, I can understand your appearance, but what I can't figure out is why you're here to give us vital information that somebody won't be pleased about you spreading. Shouldn't you be off hiding until the coast is really clear?" he demanded.  
  
Myoga scratched his head, his face turning red. "Lord Inuyasha, isn't labeling an old demon like myself a little bit mean? I come here with the best of intentions and I get called a coward within five minutes of my arrival."  
  
Kagome narrowed her eyes. Lovely, this will do miracles for the town gossip, the town Priestess housing demons. "Um, Inuyasha?" Kagome asked seeking introductions.  
  
Sighing, Inuyasha made introductions around the table. He sat down, and Myoga bounced over to look at him. "Okay, Myoga, spill. What in the world made you come over the threshold and tell us that Sango was kidnapped? And you better not be lying, because otherwise the priest is going to have a lot of fun with you."  
  
Hanging his head in shame, Myoga had to tell the truth. After all, Inuyasha was still his lord, too. "Lord Sesshomaru sent me."  
  
"Ha! I knew it!"  
  
Shippo scratched his head. "Lord Sesshomaru? Not 'King' yet, then? So he hasn't managed to get Naraku off the throne."  
  
"He will soon," Myoga amended. "Lord Sesshomaru sent me here because he wants you three to follow him: yourself, m'Lord, the Priestess Kagome, and the monk."  
  
"What about me?" Shippo demanded, his tail puffing in anger, and his eyes narrowing.  
  
Myoga snorted. "Yeah, like Lord Sesshomaru really cares what a little fox demon does!"  
  
Miroku grabbed the little flea and squeezed him between his fingers. "**WHAT HAS HE DONE WITH SANGO?"** Miroku yelled, his eyes flaring a demonic green.  
  
Kagome looked down at Shippo. "Go get Kaede," she whispered and stood up, looking at Inuyasha. "This isn't over," Kagome whispered clenching her fists to her dress. How she wished...  
  
What wasn't over: him getting told to fix everything that they had broken in to house, or something else? The back rub, perhaps? He let Miroku squeeze the demon repeatedly. It wasn't going to kill him, after all. As Shippo ran off to get Kaede, Kagome disappeared, leaving the three men alone in the kitchen. After a moment, Inuyasha wrestled Myoga from Miroku's fingers. "Sorry, Myoga. Sometimes Miroku lets his anger get away from him. You can see how he would make a good husband for a demon killer like Sango. Now, how about answering his question before he gets mad again?"  
  
Myoga shook his head, slowly peeling himself off of the table. "As I have already said, Lord Sesshomaru wants you and the priestess and Miroku to return to the demon world. He tried to kidnap your wife, but even he could not get to her without alerting you, and her house is built upon sacred ground. But Lady Sango, on the other hand, was bathing when they kidnapped her. He says that if you want her back, you're going to have to come and get her, otherwise in four days she will be put on trial for the murder of all the demons she has slain."  
  
Miroku felt the world spin out of place and then slam into him full force. Letting out a scream of rage, Miroku ignored the saying of killing the messenger. Or rather, not killing the messenger. He launched himself forward to slam Myoga flat. "Where did he take her?" Miroku shouted, his eyes blazing with such an unholy light, it made his monk robes look ridiculous.  
  
For the first time, since he had made the deal, he looked like a true demon. There was not a shred of humanity in him, even though his physical appearance was unchanged, save for the eyes.  
  
Emerging from the hallways, Kagome appeared with her quiver and arrows. "It is not a trial, but an execution," Kagome retorted, feeling her soul squeeze in pain. She was so worried about Sango... Looking at Inuyasha, Kagome couldn't hide the guilt from her face, before it was replaced by stand fast resolve. "How did he manage to return here? We saw the portal close."  
  
Myoga glared at Miroku, and was about to tell him to stop, but the sight scared him too much. "I know not, Lady Kagome. I was simply told to tell you what I told you. I have nothing else left to say."  
  
Inuyasha pursed his lips, as he wondered whether or not Myoga was telling the truth. "If my brother has started to undue Naraku's power, he might have been able to open a portal." His eyes shifted to Kagome, and their look softened. "Don't look like that, Kagome. I'm the one who should have killed him, when I had the chance." He almost sounded heroic when he said it, but deep down he laughed at himself. A chance to kill Sesshomaru? What chance?  
  
Kagome narrowed her eyes at him. "You're my husband. I know when you are bluffing," she teased warmly but quite affectionately, before turning an almost frightened, somewhat bewildered look at Miroku.  
  
"'I have nothing else left to say,'" he quoted then cracked his knuckles. "You're dead- Unless you come up with something useful to tell me."  
  
The flea demon cowered beneath four arms. "Sango is being held at the home of Inuyasha's mother, in the demon world! I swear to you that I know nothing else! I am but a messenger!"  
  
Inuyasha practically ignored them, as he watched Kagome, even though he was speaking to Miroku. "It's pretty obvious that it's a trap. He wants revenge for your rebellion, and my treason for mating with Kagome. Myoga, I swear to you that if you tell Sesshomaru that we're coming so that he can close his trap, you're going to take a century to recover from the thrashing we three are going to give you. Is that understood?"  
  
"Yes, my Lord Inuyasha," the small demon sighed, as another small demon entered the kitchen, this one leading Kaede.  
  
Snorting softly, Inuyasha glared at them. "Kaede must have shut the door behind you, Shippo. It didn't slam."  
  
Shippo looked scared and his paws were shaking, his tail winding around himself as he shook his head carefully.  
  
Kaede's face was taunt, her eyes sliding to look over her shoulder, before grabbing Shippo and screaming. "It's a trap!" As though those were words set the demons lose, the door blew in. Kaede cuddling Shippo close was thrown to the side of the room. Demons of all sorts, flowed through the open door. Rushing in with speed and hunger, their calls and howls, shrieks filled the house nearly tearing it all apart in their ambush.  
  
Miroku swung around but caught Myoga in his grasp. His eyes flaring. "Inuyasha threatened a trashing... I'll end your life. Unless Sango is returned to me," Miroku hissed then threw the little demon to the table. "I will get my wife back." That said, Miroku stepped up to the plate and tossed his Buddha beads away from his hand, releasing his wind funnel at the demons.  
  
Kagome still recovering from the shock, strung an arrow and shot before ducking out of the way and rushing over to Kaede and Shippo, calling their names.  
  
His hand automatically went to his hip, before recalling that he wasn't wearing his sword. Why should he? He was in his own house! Demons weren't supposed to come and attack him in his own goddamn house! "Shippo! Get my sword!"  
  
Inuyasha didn't even wait to see that his order was being followed before he clenched his fist, digging his nails into his palm so hard that they drew blood. He could easily take of the ones that Miroku wasn't, though the priest was doing a damn fine job on his own. He was already in rapid thought. Inuyasha flattened Myoga when he tried to scurry away.  
  
Soon, only one demon was left, and Inuyasha was pissed off. The bastards had practically destroyed the hallway of Kagome's house! Two of Kagome's arrows were sticking from it's chest, the purifying strength killing him quickly enough. Inuyasha leaned over his slumped form in time to see the demon expire.  
  
"These aren't Sesshomaru's followers. At least, they weren't on the ship. Either my brother has been gaining admirers, or else Naraku is somehow in on all of this too." His lips were drawn in a tight line, ears pulled back slightly as if he were wearing a grimace. "Looks like we're going back to the demon world."  
  
Kagome stood up shakily. Her resolution obvious, but still her soul was aching. To go back meant giving up on the life they were building. It meant... That this whole month was a dream and there was nothing left to it. Closing her eyes, Kagome allowed herself to gracefully fall to her knees in a mock bow beside Kaede. To go to the demon world, was death.  
  
But they had to. "Kaede, I need you to be the Priestess of the village till I return," Kagome whispered to the girl softly. Not daring to look at either of the men.  
  
Miroku replaced the beads of his hand and brushed the sweat beads off of his forehead to look at Inuyasha. "How the fuck do we go there?" Miroku asked forgetting he was usually the brains while Inuyasha was the brawns.  
  
Inuyasha could have face faulted. "How do we get there? How?" he bellowed. What the hell was with Miroku? Was he separated from Sango for one minute and he loses his brains or something? Inuyasha swore heavily and smacked Miroku upside the head. "You fuckin' idiot! You can open portals to the demon world and you ask us how we're going to get there?"  
  
Shippo ran down the stairs, carrying Inuyasha's sword, juggling it rather awkwardly. "I got your... oh. Shit, the battle's... I mean.... Ah...." His face went red as he dodged Kagome's glare at his oath and handed Tetsusaiga to Inuyasha.  
  
"Thanks, Shippo." Inuyasha knelt down on one knee to look the fox demon in the face, all his anger at Miroku's stupid question lost. "Okay, kid. I need you to stay here with Kaede. Help her protect the village, understand?" Shippo opened his mouth the protest but was quickly silenced by one on Inuyasha's golden glares. "I said that you're going to stay here. Understood?"  
  
"Yes, sir...."  
  
Kaede turned a frightened glance at Kagome and shook her head. "Priestess Kagome..." Kaede whispered reaching out her small hand to Kagome's flat stomach. "You can't, not in your c-"  
  
Kagome let out a silencing hush and took Kaede's hand in her own, peeling it off of her and giving it a warm squeeze. "Don't worry. I'll be fine," Kagome whispered, her free hand briefly without noticing passing the same trail Kaede had. Pulling an arrow from her quiver she gave it to Kaede. "You'll be a fine Priestess. Once we are away, the village should be safer too. Put wards up around the borders though," Kagome reminded and graced a light peck over Kaede's cheek.  
  
Miroku noticed this and after a moment of static silence between his ears it dawned on him. And he gaped.  
  
"You fucking son of a whoring bitch!" Miroku shouted at Inuyasha and returned the head slap with his own, smacking him over the ears non stop. Not wanting to hurt him too much, after all he needed him well enough to help get his wife back, and his own wife was pregnant and... DAMMIT! He beat him in getting married and now with a child! "Idiot!" Miroku continued yelling.  
  
"What'd I do now?" Inuyasha demanded, vaguely noticing that Kagome really must have gotten to him if he didn't fill the air with loose expletives. He rubbed his head when Miroku had stopped hitting him to glare at the dark- eyed man. "That was completely uncalled for."  
  
Inuyasha stood up and looked around for Myoga. 'Damn. The little shit face escaped.' He blinked coolly. Well, nothing could be done about that now. "How much time do you two need to get ready?" All Inuyasha needed was his sword.  
  
Miroku narrowed his eyes. "Uncalled for? You never let me be the first at anything. Do you?" Miroku muttered like an angry younger brother then shook his head, looking pityingly at Kagome. "I really should've trained him better," he apologized and gazed at Inuyasha with a giant question mark hanging over his head. Sending a pregnant new wife into the demon world... Perfect.  
  
"We need to find a place to start the ceremony," Miroku said looking down at his shaking hands. What if Sango was pregnant too? Then Sesshomaru would hold both his child and his wife. It didn't really matter to him right now if she was or wasn't. She was missing and... Miroku shook his head at Inuyasha. "Do you know how jealous I am of you?" he asked and turned on his heal. "The ceremony unlike last time will take almost all night, there isn't enough demon energy in the area to power it."  
  
'Jealous of what? Of having my fucking house ripped apart by demons?' Inuyasha rolled his eyes. His shoulders stiffened. All night? "If it takes all night, then I guess it will have to. I don't know any other way, and now that Myoga's gone, we can't threaten him into telling us how he got here. Unless there's an open portal somewhere. . . ."  
  
The thought hung in his mind for a second, before he dismissed it. There couldn't be a portal open. If there was, a priest, a half-demon, or a priestess would surely have been able to sense it. And even if there was, there was no guarantee that it was within a distance closer of one night's travels.  
  
"I guess that means we're going to have a lot of time to get ready."  
  
Miroku for the untold time today smacked Inuyasha upside down over the head. "You don't have enough time for that!" Miroku shouted and bowed respectively at Kagome, before glaring back at Inuyasha and pulling him by the sleeve out of the house. "You get laid once and you can't get over it or enough..." Miroku muttered, missing the feel of his wife right now. Well, he had work to do. He'd make Inuyasha sweat right along with him.  
  
Kagome was lost for a moment, then realization dawned and she blushed. Turning to Kaede, Kagome helped her up. "Would you help me pack us some supplies for the way?" Kagome asked softly and was glad when the girl agreed. Turning to Shippo, Kagome crouched down beside the young demon. "I have to ask you for a favor," she whispered and glanced up at Kaede quickly. "See, you have to stay here and protect Kaede... But she isn't at ease with all these demon leftovers around. Do you think you could start cleaning up and once we finish packing we'll help you finish?"  
  
Shippo nodded, smiling brightly. He didn't mind doing anything when Kagome asked him nicely like that. Well, okay, he didn't mind it when Inuyasha asked him either, but he liked to play with Inuyasha sometimes. "I can do that, Kagome."  
  
Inuyasha pulled his sleeve out of Miroku's grasp. "So where the hell are you dragging me off to?" he demanded.  
  
Miroku glared at Inuyasha over his shoulder, still fuming. Walking a short way out of the town towards the wood, Miroku turned and punched Inuyasha in the face. Partly because of jealousy, partly because of "brotherly- rivalry", and also because he had to let out his anger and he knew Inuyasha could take it and hopefully understand. "Idiot. So how long till due date?" Miroku asked whistling for his horse, that came trotting out from between the trees.  
  
"Ah, hello there," he said grabbing the reins and handing them to Inuyasha then he began stripping. He was going into the demon world. Falling back on his roots, his crookedness and his pirate self, he would not wear his Monk robes. He wore those for his lady. Tossing the robes onto the horse's saddle, Miroku rummaged through his bag pulling out a loose shirt that tied down the front but he left it open, then began searching for his pants. "I guess congratulations are in order," he muttered at last pulling out the tight fitting black pants and removing the rest of his robes. "It's too early for some things I know, but have you thought of names?" Miroku asked trying to at least appease his dim-witted friend.  
  
Holding the reins of the horse in one hand and rubbing his jaw with the other, his golden eyes stopped looking angry. There was a brief moment of confusion, and then he suddenly got it. "Kagome's _PREGNANT_!" He clamped his mouth shut, not wanting to attract the attention of passing villagers (though there were none, as a group of demons had just raced through the street). "Fuck, she's pregnant!" 


	3. As Darkness Gathers

**AN**: Hey! So we're back with another chappie... This time, things get even darker... more complicated... What new twist will we throw at you? What nightmare will haunt your dreams? Can you withstand the waiting...? Well, of course you can! Cause you _knooooow_ you want to read what happens next! **tee- hee** And don't mind if I say so myself, but things only get better.  
  
Thank you to everyone who reviewed, please keep on reviewing, we love to read what you have to say... So once again, thank you! PoF and I are delighted you are enjoying our story, and appreciate your reviews – So keep 'em up!  
  
What else do I have to say? I dunno. It's kinda hard to think running on two hours sleep, so I suppose I should just go to bed... But how can one sleep when they have such a lovely Inuyasha trapped in a cage? Though, if he is trapped in a cage (my cage) does that mean PoF and I own the rights to him...? Hmm... Perhaps, but till we figure that out, this was a disclaimer.  
  
Enjoy the new chapter! Don't forget to review!  
  
Chapter Three  
  
_**As Darkness Gathers**_  
  
Inuyasha began to count back on his hands. She had been taking Sango's potion all the time, since they had arrived back on land. That meant that... the ship. She had to have gotten pregnant on the ship. "Eight months," he told him. Eight months and he was going to be a father. There was a sudden smile on his face that only being a father could create.  
  
'I'm going to be a Daddy.'  
  
Miroku looked up from his feet to glare at him. "You don't have to gloat - and wipe that stupid look off of your face," Miroku muttered then stopped mid fly zipping to blink idiotically at Inuyasha. "You just NOW figured that out?!"  
  
"Pardon me for not having my wife tell me that she was with child!" he roared. "Fuck, she gives me shit when I forget to tell her I go human once a month and she's fuckin' pregnant for a month and neglects to tell me." The smiled that had annoyed Miroku was wiped away as he lingered on that thought. Why hadn't she told him? Did she not know the best way to tell him? Was she afraid of his reaction?  
  
What if he was afraid that she would question who the father was? If their child was conceived on the ship, then it might mean....  
  
Inuyasha didn't care about that though. He didn't care who the father was, as long as Kagome was the mother. Yet the last time he had tried to explain this to her, she had thought he was insulting her, and had gotten his ass kicked rather thoroughly in the process.  
  
Miroku spied on Inuyasha, so did Miroku's horse. "Hey, why the long face? Your wife is pregnant. You're married. And aren't 11 years old. Things look good. So why do you look as miserable as I feel?" Miroku asked then chewed on the inside of his cheek. "You forgot to tell her the human bit?" Miroku asked letting out a long whistle. "How was the make up sex?"  
  
"Well, you saw the crack in the ceiling for yourself," he said, rubbing his wrists and without a lot of pleasure in his voice. He managed to put on a weak smile for his friend. Inuyasha wished that he could voice his concerns to Miroku, but this was a matter more for man and wife than friends. He handed the reins back to Miroku.  
  
"After we get back, I'll buy you a cigar and drinks to celebrate. I promise."  
  
Miroku watched Inuyasha suspiciously, before turning his attention to bags on his horse. "Go talk to her," Miroku said pouring the contents of his bags onto the ground. "Oops. I dropped stuff. Damn. This will take me a while to clean up," Miroku said monotonically, then pointed at the house. "Send Shippo out here, I'll give him some candy and I'll show Kaede my monk wards to place around the house. You and Lady Kagome can talk," Miroku offered his friend then sat on the ground. "This instead of a wedding gift," Miroku said examining a gold coin he found on the grass. "If I were you, I'd be glad. My wife carrying my child," Miroku said thinking back to Sango, seeing the sutra pages didn't help either. "A son," he whispered to himself, lost in memories.  
  
"I am glad," he said, his black eyebrows knotting slightly. Did Miroku really think that he wasn't happy to learn he was going to be a father? He just wanted to know why she hadn't told him. He patted his friend heartily on the shoulder. "Thanks, Miroku."  
  
Going into the house, he told Shippo that Miroku was giving out sugar and the next thing he knew there was a whirlwind running by him. He didn't need to tell Kaede anything, she already seemed to know what was going on, and smiled at him as she walked by.  
  
Inuyasha stood in the doorway behind Kagome. His gaze was piercing, though his eyes seemed too disheartened to really be angry. When he said her name, it cracked from sadness, but he wasn't sure if it was from a painful or a happy sadness. "Why didn't you tell me?"  
  
Kagome turned from the table, her hands full of supplies. Looking at him and seeing the look on his face, Kagome turned her attention back to the saddle pack. "Tell you what?" she asked softly, her voice lost of all of the strength and backbone it usually possessed. How she didn't want it to come out like this, or now... Swallowing, Kagome couldn't stand the feel of his gaze on her. But she was too frightened to turn around to look at him.  
  
"Even now, when I'm standing right behind you, you won't tell me..." he muttered softly. Inuyasha walked right up to her and spun her around so that she looked at him. His face became even gentler, and the grip he had on her shoulders became barely noticeable. He stared at her eyes, terrified of what she might tell him. "Kagome, if I'm going to be a father, I would have liked to have heard it from your mouth first. Is it true what Miroku says? Are we truly going to be parents?"  
  
Kagome couldn't help the rosy color that touched her cheeks. Feeling nervous, she bit on her lips nervously and slightly shaking took his hand from her shoulder and flattened it over her flat stomach. Lowering her lashes, Kagome's fingers caressed down over his hand pressing it tighter against her abdomen as she nodded her head, bobbing it up and down. She was too afraid to say anything, so instead she just passed her finger tips over his hand, enjoying how warm it felt and hoping that the life in her could feel it as well.  
  
"Kagome. . . ." Her name was filled with wonder as he stared at her stomach. 'It's so hard to believe that there's a life growing inside there!' He felt his hands start to shake. 'I really am going to be a father.'  
  
Inuyasha suddenly picked Kagome up by her hips, holding her tightly as he laughed out loud, spinning her once. He didn't want to hurt her or scare her. Inuyasha kissed her swiftly, thinking that he had never loved Kagome so much before. He didn't stop kissing her as he muttered 'thank you' to her, and found himself ready to cry as the words continued to run through his head. They were going to have a baby.  
  
Kagome was giddy with pleasure and happiness, burying her face in the crook of his neck, Kagome closed her eyes feeling the tears sting and cling to her long lashes. "So... You're happy about this?" Kagome asked smiling sheepishly when he stopped spinning her and just pressed her close to him, so that her middle was touching his. "Inuyasha?"  
  
He nodded fervently. His fingers stroked her hair, as his tears of happiness rolled down his cheeks. He wiped them away quickly. "I haven't been this happy since we got married," he admitted. "Oh, Kagome, why didn't you tell me sooner? Why in the world would you have thought that I was going to be happy about this? We're going to bring a new life in this world together."  
  
Kagome shuddered and stepped back from his embrace, hugging herself. "Because you aren't happy here. Because we aren't settled. Because we've only been together in life a month. Because you are a demon who was appalled at first to find out he had married not to mention what your reaction would be at a child. Because we weren't planning on it. Because of a million and one different doubts I had?" Kagome whispered feeling sick and pressing her hand to her stomach reflexively, almost protecting it. "Because you might want to return to the other world, and I didn't want anything standing in your way if you decided to," Kagome added, straightening her back and keeping her chin up and looking tall. If he had decided to leave, she would have raised the child alone, not boggled him down with an heir. "Because I'm a damn idiot?" she added at last, letting the air out of her lungs in a rush.  
  
"But you're my idiot," he said gently. Inuyasha took her hand and sat down, pulling her back close. He leaned his head on her abdomen, already imagining that he could hear the heartbeat of a new life. "Kagome, why in the world wouldn't you think that I'm happy here? And I was never appalled at being married, merely surprised, and terrified that you would kill me for my ignorance."  
  
He stared up at her, his eyes no longer soft at the topic of going back to the demon world. "Nothing would ever make me willingly go back there, which is why my brother had Sango kidnapped. I belong with my wife."  
  
"And I belong with you." Kagome whispered sitting down on his lap, kissing him. "That's why I am going with you." She said enjoying the relief that swept over her. "Well, as for killing because of ignorance..." Kagome looked down at his hand patting her stomach and couldn't help but laugh. "You know, the rest of me is growing jealous of the attention my stomach is getting," she whispered without thinking then leaned her forehead against him. "If it wasn't for your ignorance none of this would've happened..." Kagome said, her fingers massaging the base of his ears. "And I'm sure Miroku is feeling the same way you are for me, for Sango; we should be going."  
  
Inuyasha nodded in agreement, but he did not let her go, instead taking the opportunity of silence to kiss her soundly. She was not only his wife, but the mother of his children also, yet nothing about her hand changed. Her lips were still warm under his, their touch still familiar and welcomed. Lifting his head, he kissed her nose, and her cheeks. Inuyasha knew that Kagome would want to go with them, not only because they made a good team together, but also because Sango was her friend. He was about to ask her to stay, simply because he would feel better having asked it, but he stopped before the first word got out. It wasn't necessarily safer here. Inuyasha preferred being able to protect her, as he had so gladly promised to less than a day after he had taken her from her house.  
  
He released her, but still hovered close. "Almost done packing? How much stuff are you planning on packing, woman?"  
  
Kagome turned in his arms to look at the table, his arms encircling her from behind. She couldn't help enjoying the intimacy, the feel of his arms around her stomach, his chest pressing into her back. Kagome leaned back enjoying the sensation. "Will you still care for me when I'm fat?" Kagome teased, knowing the answer but still unable to keep the usual question out. "But we're not calling the baby Sesshy Jr. as you offered." Kagome warned jokingly. She thought they had reached some silent agreement, he didn't ask about Sesshomaru and pushed the thoughts of him out of his head and she never asked about Kikyo, not letting her heart betray her with jealousy. "And I'm not packing that much, food and weapons. Alright, I guess we don't need this much," Kagome muttered then looked down at his locked arms about her waist. "You gotta let me go so I can change my clothes."  
  
Inuyasha breathed in deeply, almost as if it was a sigh. He slowly let his arms fall to his sides. He watched her walk upstairs, not able to take his amorous eyes off his wife. Before she completely disappeared upstairs, Inuyasha called out her name, and smiled at her. "Thank you." And before she could ask what he was thanking her for, he had disappeared into some other room, going to retrieve their tools so that he could fix the front door of their house, not content to leave it hanging from one hinge.  
  
Miroku arrived at the door with Kaede and Shippo, plus his horse. "Ok. The dumb grin is back. I take it everything is well once again?" Miroku asked, edgy to start out.  
  
He only nodded. He wanted to tell the world that in eight month's he was going to be a father, but he didn't want to brag about it to Miroku. Instead, he went about fixing the front door. "Miroku, you never know," he said. "You could still get a son first."

* * *

Naraku leaned back in the throne, his fathomless eyes empty. "So, the Priestess is expecting," Naraku said in his soft, but powerful rumbling voice. "You've done well, Kanna," he said looking down at his eldest creation and young sister. The alabaster girl held the mirror in her soft small hands and shook it, causing the scene to change to that of the monk talking with the half-breed. "And as expected, they are heading this way," he said, a cold dry smile pulling at the ends of his lips.  
  
"Her soul is huge and pure, almost rivaling my evil," Naraku mused aloud, Kanna standing there like a doll, not blinking just holding her mirror showing him the other world. "And now a babe... That power will only grow," Naraku said watching the dopey look of the proud half-breed father. "How pathetic."  
  
Standing up, Naraku's long black hair glided down his back all the way to the small of it. His armor shone and looked dangerous, almost as though its cleanliness was evidence of how much blood had once drenched it. "How does it feel? Being discarded for another?" Naraku asked in his cold, yet ringing around your nerves voice as he turned to the stunning woman sitting beside his throne. "He's mated with another. After killing you," he said, a darkness sparkling in his eyes. "Kikyo."  
  
She lifted her head from her knee as she knelt beside him, her hair tied back with a bow and her clothes that of a priestess. Her skin was pale, her lips tight. Kikyo's eyes were those of a woman lost, clinging to a rage that slowly grew stronger with each passing day.  
  
Kikyo licked her lips, as if she was not used to speaking. She wanted to lie and say that it didn't hurt at all. And in a strange way, it didn't. It burned, but it did not hurt her. "It makes me mad," she answered, her voice strong an enunciating each word, as if speaking of Inuyasha was speaking of something vile and hated. "He has wronged me in many ways, and I will repay the favor tenfold." She paused. "But, my Lord, I cannot help but feel pity for the girl. Inuyasha will cast her away the same way he did to me."  
  
"True." Naraku played the game as he reclaimed his seat. "But he mated her. Took her to be his bride and she is now ripe with his child," Naraku said then looked compassionately at Kikyo, although there was no sign of warmth or kindness in his gaze. "He simply took you, with nothing to repay you for. He used your body, toyed with your soul and then killed you. Do you remember those last hours of pain?" Naraku asked then motioned to Kanna who jiggled the mirror again, this time to show the scenes that took place years ago. They focused on her, what she was going through, her screams piercing so loud the mirror shook, and only showing her torment for a fraction of a second, his long silver hair gliding past the mirror. "He has wronged you, and I have returned you."  
  
She lowered her head again, closing her eyes tightly. She wanted to press her hands to her ears to keep her from hearing her screams, but they seemed too heavy for her to lift. Even if she could block her ears, it would do no good. They still rang inside her head. The events of her demise were shaky, all she could really remember was the pain. She woke up in a cold sweat sometimes, and expected to see her blood covering her naked body, the pain was still so fresh.  
  
She could learn to hate his bitch too; she could learn. "Aye my Lord, and for the chance at avenging my death, I thank you. If you did not rescue me as I fell, there would be nobody to give Inuyasha the death he deserves."  
  
Naraku smiled tightly, narrowing his eyes into thin slits. He almost looked beautiful like that, but dangerous too. The most beautiful creatures were the deadliest after all. His voice wasn't warm, or soothing, but it did coil around the person, it wrapped itself like a serpent around those weak spots that ran like hairline cracks through the person's soul and fed on them. And right now, watching the demised Priestess, Naraku could see those cracks grow, the pieces of her soul shake.  
  
"No. There wouldn't be. And he deserves to die. Doesn't he?" Naraku posed the question, he didn't move when he addressed her, just remain estranged as always: careless and statuesque. "But it won't be you to give his physical body the death he deserves, for all the pain he has caused you. Do you want to let him die so easily?" Naraku asked, a cold flick of his eyes at Kanna and the mirror shook again showing her mangled corpse. "No. That wouldn't do. Would it?"  
  
Kikyo hissed softly when she accidentally saw her corpse. She switched her eyes to Naraku instead, and a voice whispered in her mind. For too long she had thought of ways to make Inuyasha pay for his torture, and the news of his child opened up a whole new area of pain and play. "No, it wouldn't. But, King Naraku, if I went after his whore and their child, then..." Her words slowed and her face looked more like a child trying to understand than it did a priestess who was staring the devil in the face. "Then might their deaths be a good place to start?"  
  
"Wondrous. You would torment his soul, kill him from the inside until it burnt his body apart," Naraku encouraged. How he loved it when his pets figured plans out for themselves, he thought sarcastically. "But you may not kill her. I'd like you to bring her here," Naraku said then turned his attention back to the mirror, watching again as he talked to her softly before her death.  
  
"How he toyed with you. You were his mouse on a string. Look, listen to those sweet words... And then to simply kill you.... He took the Priestess as his wife within a day of her capture. Did he ever offer that to you? Can you remember?" Naraku asked his lips a thin line. "It is amazing that a skull can break like that," he murmured aloud, the scene of her corpse flashing over the mirror once more.  
  
She shuddered. Kikyo could recall some of the things that he had said to her. Her eyes looked clouded as she recalled when she had woken up, finding a handsome young man with silver hair and glowing eyes staring down at her. She had stared back, and did not even twitch when she saw that he was a half-demon. They had not moved until he slowly blinked and moved away from her, leaving the room as she wondered what had just happened.  
  
Nobody had made her feel like he had. His quiet personality reflected hers. They would often sit and merely stare at each other. But then he had told her that he was going to let her go, because he cared about her too much to watch her die. But apparently "letting go" meant something different to Inuyasha than it had to Kikyo.  
  
Her eyes were hard. "Can I at least pay back the favor that he did to me? I won't kill her, but can I at least show her firsthand what that bastard did to me?" Her hands tightened. "Perhaps he may not find her screams as pleasing as mine."  
  
Naraku enjoyed the aura a once dead Priestess gave off, especially when it grew black and corrupted. Motioning Kanna over with the flex of his fingers, Naraku's gaze urged Kikyo to study herself in the mirror. "You have nothing left to show," he said looking at her reflection beside her. "He took her in the same bed he professed love to you. He took her maidenhead after the lock of hair you had bestowed him was tossed carelessly in his room. He took this Priestess and mated her in both demon and human fashion as your body rotted and your soul suffered in limbo before descending into hell, never to find peace. And then he seeded her womb, and I brought you back to this world. For a soul with unfinished business can never move on," Naraku said smoothly, his voice as cold as ice.  
  
His eyes were as black as night, black as pitch; his heart fouler then the foulest witch. That was, had he a heart. "You may do as you wish to her, the one who looks so much like you, but whom did not meet your same fate. As long as you bring her to me whole. I wish for her powers," Naraku said matter-of-factly. "He has replaced you like a thrown away mutt," Naraku said, his voice relentless. "It must hurt."  
  
Suddenly she seemed to realize that it did hurt. The fire burned her, screaming for attention, hungrier than a starving demon and a hundred times as fierce. "All I ever wanted was somebody to love me as man is made to love a woman. And I died for the mistake I had in falling for that horrible creature, that half breed!" She slid off the ground, standing up on legs which were still someone shaky. "It hurts more than all the pain he gave me in death. But I swear that I will make him hurt more."  
  
Naraku nodded to this new found and blooming hate in Kikyo, taking slow sips of her hate and anger. "What will you do?" he asked, motioning for Kanna to stop showing them pictures in the mirror.  
  
"I shall make her think he hates her. I will make her think he deserted her. I will strip away her love for him until she hates him as much as I, and hates me as much as him. And so, should Inuyasha show up, he will find no loving wife to comfort him; only a girl made a woman by his too-eager hand. And she will blame all her pain on him, because he did not come and save her." She smiled cruelly. "I will rip out his heart."


	4. The Dark Forest and the Dank Dungeon

**AN**: And once again… We are back! Fourth chapter up and ready for your feasting pleasure! We introduce a "new" character in this chapter… Oh, what tangled webs we weave… I tell you, someone should really psycho analyze PoF and me for all the stuff we come up with! Though… So far no one has complained, so I guess that is a good sign at least! ::grin::

drake220: So glad you liked Kikyo!!! And yeah… We offered her Midol… You wouldn't believe the profanities… Apparently nothing less then Advil for her. But oh well, all we can do is wait and see if it helped… Her… Shall we call it 'disposition'?

KougasMyMan: Yay! Cute and fluffy is great, isn't it? We supplied you with more cuddly warmth in this chapter as well, don't worry. As for making you cringe… It's only the beginning. ::cracks knuckles:: Who knows what is going on in Kikyo's mind? Only one way to find out… Yep, you've got. Read on!

megu-sama: Glad you like!! And as per your request… An update!

ptbear: Glad you like! This sequel, in our minds, is just as good as it's predecessor. As for what is to happen and how things develop… We have many twists and hair pin turns in store for you guys. Don't worry. It'll be a wild ride. We promise.

As for everyone else, thank you for reading! We hope you like our story and would really appreciate your feedback in the form of reviews! So _please review_ and enjoy the fourth installment of _**'Lies of the Heart'**_!!

Ja ne! :)

**_Chapter Four: The Dark Forest and the Dank Dungeon_**

Inuyasha landed on his feet, the portal swirling above him. 'To think I grew up in this world. Imagine what Sango must have thought....'  
  
The forest was dark, the sky even blacker. Dawn had not yet come to the demon world; but then, neither had it come to the human one. His ears twitched. He had forgotten how silent the forests of the demon world were. The animals all lived in fear, never uttering a sound lest a demon be on the prowl for flesh. The trees were older here, tall enough that some demons were dwarfed by the eldest of them.  
  
Magic was everywhere. He could smell it. Everything had its own power in the world. He turned to warn Miroku and Kagome to be careful, not to offend anything in the forests, but they had not arrived yet.  
  
Miroku landed on his feet and crouched low. Looking up, his eyes adjusted to the darkness and shone green. "Can you pick up her scent?" Miroku asked straight to business. The silence was deafening, but he had grown use to it when he had spent years here. Looking up, Miroku saw Kagome fall through the rip in the sky, and a pink swirling power around her. Shit. Her power would tip everyone off. When had a Priestess last been in this world? "I'll give you the honors of catching your wife." Miroku smirked and stepped aside. "She's annoyed enough as is, no need to have her fall on her rump and be even more annoyed." Miroku added, remembering how pissed she got when Inuyasha babied her on the way here.  
  
The portal closed behind them. It would not open up again until it was made to do so. Though Miroku had the power to do this, Inuyasha couldn't help but feel slightly trapped in the place that he had turned his back on.  
  
"Bastard," Inuyasha muttered before jumping up to catch his wife as she fell. He landed easily, holding Kagome in his arms and against his chest. He opened his arms so that she could get up. He wanted to ask her if she was okay, but that was stupid, and only make Kagome think that he was trying to coddle her in her current "state". Instead he snorted. "Stupid wench."  
  
Kagome narrowed her eyes at him and kicked his shin. "Are you manic? One minute you are all over me not to ride the god damn horse and now you are calling me stupid wench. Inuyasha, your hormones are more off kilter then mine!" Kagome accused pushing away from him and gathering her back pack up, along with her arrows and bow.  
  
For the first time, Kagome actually looked around and felt a chill run up her spine. "As though someone walked over my grave..." she whispered then ventured forward to the woods. The silence was irking her. Placing her hand on an old tree, Kagome closed her eyes and felt the wood, the age... Maybe it was a pure presence, or her power, but the tree suddenly had green leafs budding.  
  
Miroku stood amazed then glared at Inuyasha. "She has to control those powers. A demon is bound to smell her out. You did." Miroku collected his backpack and went after her.  
  
'That's my wife... Eh?' He shook his head, snapping out if his growing pride for Kagome. But none of it showed on his face. If anything, he looked more worried. He hurried ahead of Miroku and took Kagome's hand off the tree, pulling off to the dirt road. Inuyasha didn't let go of her hand. "Kagome, you can't go around using your powers like that. Demons are going to notice you if you do, and they're going to come looking for us. We want to try to be undetectable, so unless it's in dire need, no using your magic? Okay?"  
  
Kagome nodded in understanding but looked sadly at the tree. "It was dying, and it's such a good old tree..." Kagome whispered then peered into the dark woods. "Are those kadomas?" Kagome whispered, her hand tightening around his briefly before she pulled herself free of his grasp, barely and moved a few steps forward, curious like a young girl of this new dark, looming world.  
  
Miroku came up beside Inuyasha and eyed his friend. "You might not notice this, but the other world dulled out our demonic side. This one sings to the demon blood in our veins," Miroku said noticing how Inuyasha's claws looked more menacing and his eyes were a darker shade of yellow. "Be careful not to show her the demon she married," Miroku suggested, his face unreadable as he shrugged at Inuyasha his green eyes blazing. "She is somewhat demonic herself with those powers, maybe this world is singing to her too- Fuck," Miroku whispered seeing a bunny crawl out of its hiding towards her. "She's fucking bringing the fucking forest to fucking life," Miroku said aghast, unable to keep the cussing out of his mouth. "Control your wife for whatever sake!"  
  
"And you control your mouth," he growled, purely for comedic affect. He reached out again and caught Kagome, holding her close and letting her look at the tree spirits as he sniffed the air. His senses were even better then normal. Inuyasha managed to ignore the scent of his wife long enough to find the right direction.  
  
"Come on Kagome," he said gently. "It's time to go." He was about to start pulling her away when he thought of something else. "Hey, Miroku, wanna play tag?"  
  
Miroku narrowed his eyes at Inuyasha who was hugging his wife, then grinned, raising his hands in denial. "Maybe when I wasn't a married man, sure. I mean, I didn't know you swung that way, or Kagome for that matter. But I made a vow to Sango. I am a one woman man now," Miroku apologized. "It's just gonna have to be the two of you for now," Miroku said shaking his head.  
  
"Not like that," Inuyasha growled. He bent down and wrapped Kagome's arms around his neck, reaching behind him and pulling her knees up to his hips. He muttered for her to hold on, before he jumped, an amazingly long jump.  
  
Okay, Inuyasha really didn't like the demon world, but it felt good to feel his old strength returning. He felt stronger and faster than he had for a long time. But the thought was as sobering as it was uplifting. If this was how a half demon felt, then imagine how much stronger his brother was!  
  
"Try to catch up!" Inuyasha shouted, his actions calling him an idiot. He looked out of the corner of his eye to Kagome. "You okay back there?"  
  
Kagome nodded, cuddling closer to Inuyasha. Causing him a distraction as they almost faltered in step. Wrapping her arms around his neck, she began kissing it for no good reason. "You are thriving here," Kagome whispered in awe, apparently, she did see things after all. "I've seen your human side and now I am seeing your demon one." Kagome pondered this then shook out of her thoughts. "Where are we going?" She questioned then looked down in shock, as Miroku raced through the woods they were practically gliding over in leaps. "He never seemed like a demon before," Kagome whispered in awe.  
  
Inuyasha shrugged gently. He liked having Kagome being this close to him. "Miroku's not a demon, not really, he just as a couple demonic powers under his sleeve. He hides them better than I do," he said, his ears twitching as he spoke of them. "And we're going to my mother's house, because that's where Myoga said Sango was being held. My father built my mother a house in the middle of nowhere, so that no other demon could hurt her."  
  
He leapt over a gentle stream, and watched as the water seemed suddenly clearer. Could this dead place actually be drawing the magic from Kagome? The Black Forest, so named because of its dead nature, was even more dangerous, if that was the case! He increased his speed. "Demon side or not, I'm still Inuyasha. Why? Don't you like what you see?"  
  
Kagome tightened her hold on him and would've given him a real reason to lose his step, but decided against it. She'd save it for later when they were all safe. "No. I like. It's you. Just another side of you. A very sexy side of you," she said blushing, glad her face was buried in his back where he couldn't see her, or feel the heat rise in her cheeks. "Your eyes are yellower and, well, I never really saw you as a demon before. That's all," Kagome replied, and looked down, watching Miroku nervously. "Or him," Kagome paused and tapped Inuyasha's shoulder. "Wait, didn't you tell me on the ship your mother...?"  
  
"Is dead, yeah," he snorted. "Well, my father didn't have the best plans, okay? But the point is that he built my Mom a place of her own, and that's apparently where Sango is being held. So that's where we're going." Inuyasha paused. "And when you need a break to stretch your legs or anything, just let me know, okay?" And then he started wondering if his cheeks were as red as they felt.  
  
Kagome lowered her head. "I know. I'm sorry..." Kagome whispered, her hand idly running through Inuyasha's silver hair. "Are you sure Myoga wasn't lying? He's a flea after all. He sucks blood. Not the most trustworthy of creatures," Kagome muttered and seeing his cheeks redden, decided they were far enough above ground, skipping from branch to branch, for her to cause him to redden a little more, without Miroku noticing. "If I have to stretch my legs, I'll just curl them around you." Kagome said nudging her knee against his upper thigh. "I like doing that. Remember?"  
  
Inuyasha missed the next branch.  
  
Luckily there was one under it. He found it hard to swallow, but when he did he glanced over his shoulder. "Will you stop doing that, woman?!" he bellowed. Kagome might be able to see the changes in his body from being in the demon world, but she couldn't see what it was doing to his mind. He senses felt like that had expanded by miles. She was on his back but her scent enveloped him from all angles. His face could feel strands of hair as they brushed his face with each jumping motion he took. He could hear her breathing. Inuyasha wanted to throw up his hands, forget all about Sango, and take her off to somewhere where they couldn't be disturbed for, oh, the rest of their lifetimes!  
  
Kagome contained her laughter and just nodded. She'd play it the good girl. "I'll be good," she promised, her fingers reaching up to the base of his ears. They seemed so much... More. Everything about Inuyasha seemed more potent, more powerful, and more real. As though she's never really seen him before. Looking around from their vantage point, Kagome leaned her cheek on his shoulder, enjoying the steady flow of his leaping through the air. "This world is cold. I can't picture you in it."  
  
He paused on one branch a second. Like the river, the tree began to absorb the magic that Kagome seemed to be letting off. He smiled gently and continued on the way. "It's not so bad. Now that you're here it's not so bad. But I was pretty cold myself, back when we first met, if you remember. I almost wish we could stay here, just for a little while. I wouldn't mind seeing the Black Forest come back to life."  
  
Kagome snuggled close to him. "It's all so sad..." Kagome whispered looking down at the forest. She swallowed, nervous, "I feel as though the branches are reaching out to me, wanting something from me. This world is cold." Kagome studied Inuyasha's ears. "You were. But you weren't cold like everyone else, you were warm under it all," Kagome said and moved her leg again, she promised to be good. Oops. Well, promises... Are meant to be broken. "I couldn't love, marry and mate with someone as cold as these woods. But you have changed, yes."  
  
Inuyasha stifled a laugh. "Kagome, you couldn't mate with woods period," he gently pointed out to her. Inuyasha didn't need to ask if she liked the change, he knew the answer. Instead, he told her about the world. "To the west live our lands, the lands that my brother rightfully deserves to rule over. If my brother hasn't taken it yet, then that means Naraku still holds the throne. We're going to stay as far away from there as possible. My mother's castle lies to the north, and that's where I grew up when I was little. You would have liked it, Kagome. It's nothing like the Black Forest."  
  
Kagome was thrilled. They always passed over this topic when they talked. She wanted to know more about it now. "Tell me," Kagome whispered, enjoying the thought of a child Inuyasha, it made a fluttering feel fill her belly. "I want to know what it was like," Kagome said thinking idly, that she probably would've liked his parents.  
  
Looking down, Kagome spotted Miroku and pulled Inuyasha's sleeve. "Can he keep up the whole way? Is it far?" Kagome asked staring out to the western lands Inuyasha spoke about. "Aren't they your lands rightfully, as well?"  
  
"Not really. My brother got the throne, but I got my mother's lands." He clamped his mouth shut before he said anything else, not wanting Kagome to hear about the castle when it was in its prime and then start blaming herself for making him stay and give up the place he would have called home. "I'll tell you about them later. We have a day or two of traveling ahead of us, so I can't tell you all my stories now."  
  
He glanced down at Miroku. "Still haven't caught me, bitch!" He picked up his pace again. That should egg him on for a little bit longer.  
  
Gasping slightly, when he picked up the pace, Kagome smacked him. "This isn't a race, and this is his wife we're searching for! He's pushing himself hard enough without your goading!" Kagome retaliated and looked down; shocked to see Miroku was still keeping up with them. He reminded her of a deer running through the woods. She started to understand Sango's statements. "Maybe we should stay here," she blurted out.  
  
"You mean for the night, right?" he asked, nearly sweat dropping. Had he actually heard her right? Stay in the demon world? She'd said but five minutes ago that it was cold, and that she could never live here! Inuyasha snorted. "Now why would we want to go and do a stupid thing like that?"  
  
"Because this is where your past is, and things aren't that great in my world. Here you have lands... We could create our own little world. I'd bring the area around our house to life as you put it." Kagome whispered then sighed. "But otherwise, yes, let's camp here for tonight." Kagome said glaring at Inuyasha. "What? You know, you don't have to be so difficult!"  
  
His reply of 'Women!' had earned him a good kick in the shins when he let Kagome down. Then he had earned a strike on the head from Miroku when the caught up, which was only about five seconds. They found a good clearing, and began to set up camp.  
  
Miroku volunteered to get supper, and took off to the spring. Inuyasha sat in front of a bundle of sticks, staring at it before he began to strike two rocks together, trying to get a fire going. He glanced at Kagome as she unrolled her bedroll. Inuyasha, of course, hadn't brought one. He completely forgot about trying to start a fire and rushed over to take her in his arms, kissing her passionately before letting her go and returning to the pile of sticks.  
  
Kagome fell onto her rump and stared at him breathless. "You know, it's not fair to kiss a woman like that and run back to the fire..." Kagome said in a rush of breath, then considered him. "Are you alright?" Kagome asked, sure this place brought up memories for Inuyasha. Snuggling herself under the blanket she rolled out, Kagome lay on her side, her arm her pillow and watched him. "You can share the bed with me. I'm sure Miroku wouldn't mind," Kagome said taking a quick tally of what they had brought with them, and realized Inuyasha hadn't brought a sleeping bag of any sort.  
  
"I told you, all I need is my sword, but..." He stopped talking when he finally got a spark going. Inuyasha blew on it gently, slowly adding pieces of tinder to it as it grew. He turned so that his breath wouldn't disturb the flame, though his eyes still watched it. "But thanks anyway. I'm sleeping in the trees tonight. I used to do it all the time when I was younger." He smiled at the memories of spending summer nights under stars. "And I wouldn't have run back to the fire if I didn't think that damn monk would return any minute and give us shit."  
  
He just had to keep on telling himself that this was a lesson in resistance.  
  
Kagome smiled tiredly at him, and snuggled down into her covers, curling up like a sated cat in her makeshift bed. "Tell me," Kagome paused to yawn, her eyes sleepy, kept fluttering shut from fatigue. She didn't exactly get a-n-y sleep the previous night when he was human, and now... Kagome yawned again, thankful for a change for Miroku's presence. She wasn't sure she'd be able to handle him tonight. "Tell me about your youth. I want to know." Kagome said, her eyes shutting but she made a sound to show him she was still awake.  
  
The fire suddenly took, blazing to life. Inuyasha sat beside Kagome and lifted her head into his lap so he could run his fingers through her hair. She looked so peaceful when she was sleeping. And he had to give her credit for staying up so long. "I said, tomorrow, Kagome, and I mean it. You'd just fall asleep now, and then I'd have to tell you all over again anyway."  
  
"I don't mind..." Kagome purred, snuggling close to him. "You're going to have to anyway. Later," Kagome murmured, her hand laying on her stomach, the blanket between the palm and her belly. "My own pirate prince..." She whispered already losing herself in sleep.  
  
Inuyasha didn't move, leaning against the tree and watching her sleep, watching the forest slowly return to its normal splendor. He could hear the birds in the trees, their wings cutting through the air. They weren't singing right now, but one day they would. When Miroku came back, Inuyasha motioned for him to be silent as he gently lowered Kagome's head back to her sleeping mat. He was about to say that she was asleep when he tripped and fell flat on his face.  
  
Looking back, he saw that she had clutched the hem of his pants. "Bitch," he lovingly swore, working her fingers off his clothes. "Even in sleep she doesn't like me to wander far."  
  
Miroku grinned as he watched them, jealousy ringing through him. He wanted to be that way. With Sango. Lowering the fish down beside the fire, he began working on them. "She's a smart woman," Miroku pointed out, then noticed how her hand was laid over her stomach. "Do you want a boy or a girl?" he asked setting the fish over the fire to grill. Leaning back against the tree, he watched the fish cook.  
  
"Sango and I were working for a son," Miroku confessed looking down at his wedding band, for the first time since they arrived here his eyes turning blue again. "We had a name planned out," Miroku added, feeling that if he spoke out loud, it wouldn't feel so damning as when he thought about it to himself. "If they hurt her, I'll tear this world apart, Yasha," Miroku said looking at him with a cruel directness. "Even if it takes me with it, I'll destroy it and everything in it," he swore, then turned the fish over.  
  
For a few minutes they sat quietly. "Hey, I had a thought. Since I know Sango was giving some of the drug to Kagome, she shouldn't have gotten pregnant. But look around her, the grass is green around her. GREEN. Not a shadow of the color," Miroku said, slight wonder touching his voice. "Maybe it didn't work. Her body purified it."  
  
"She is a priestess," he shrugged. "And that's what I want. I want another little priestess. But no matter what the sex of the child is, I'll be happy." Inuyasha sighed and looked at the fire. "I know that there was nothing that I could have done to help you and Sango, Miroku, but I'm sorry anyway. And if you try to destroy this world or yourself, I will have to try and stop you. What would Sango do if she recovered and you weren't there? Or what would your son do if he was born without a father? But, please, don't feel bad on my account, if you want to kill my brother. I promise you I won't be mad, I won't get jealous over who kills him, as long as he's dead."  
  
Miroku smirked at Inuyasha. "I'll leave the final blow to you," Miroku promised then looked down at his wrapped up hand, the Buddha beads tightly covering it, containing its evil power. "I don't want a son without a father," Miroku admitted, shocked that Inuyasha's words actually rung true and made some sense to him. "Fuck it. Women really do screw up your fucking life," Miroku muttered, though inside he knew he'd trade any whore anywhere just for one night with Sango.  
  
"You know, I've been talking about children since I was a teen. But you're the one having one and... Damn, it changed you. Or is it she who did it?" Miroku asked looking over at Kagome and handing Inuyasha a fish on a stick, hot off of the fire. "Do you think you could've reached this, with Kikyo?" Miroku ventured carefully.  
  
"Hey! It didn't change me that much! I mean, it's not like she has me whipped or anything," he sulkily protested. Deep down, he really knew that it was Kagome that had changed him. She just brought out all the good in him. She had changed him as quickly and as helplessly as she was the forest around them.  
  
Thinking about Miroku's question, he shrugged. "I honestly can't say. I know that if it did, it would have taken a lot longer for me to fall in love with her. I can't help but love Kagome." He managed to hold back a sigh of happiness. He watched his wife, happy just to be near her. "Nor can I help protect her and worry about her, the same way you do with Sango. I never had to worry about Kikyo, even though I... cared for her too. But had she gotten away, I would have stayed on the ship, and never would have seen her again. She never asked me to go with her, Miroku. Kagome did, three whole times."  
  
"The love in her eyes is very obvious," Miroku stated looking at her as she slept. "Apparently three was the lucky number, I doubt she would've asked so many times if you answered 'yes' the first time." Miroku smirked as he watched his friend turn colors. "I hate to say this. But I'm happy for you," Miroku muttered.  
  
Kagome stirred and sat up, her eyes looking huge and blinking, she looked very young suddenly, all bed raggled and out of place. But suddenly the sleepy haze that covered her was gone as she smelt the fish and rushed out of her sleeping bag, running away from their little campsite to fall on all fours and throw her heart up.  
  
Inuyasha sighed as his ears twitched. "What's the matter with her?" He gave a sigh that was half a groan. "I think I'm in over my neck! I was never really good with girls to begin with, and now my fuckin' wife is pregnant. Okay, Miroku! Tell me everything you know about pregnant women!"  
  
Miroku grinned. He had Inuyasha trapped now. "Well," he began thinking it over. This was a good distraction from Sango, he couldn't help her anymore tonight. Good distraction. "Their backs begin to hurt, their feet hurt, their chests grow and are even more supple to the touch, their stomach swell, they complain," Miroku muttered biting from his fish and looking in the direction Kagome ran off too, a worried look passing over his face. "They get sick a lot. Tend to have mood swings. Blame the male for their condition," Miroku said and seeing Inuyasha's ashen face, decided to help cheer him up. "They have a higher sex drive!" Miroku said then looked over at the bushes. "Strength, thy name is woman," he muttered spitting out a fish bone. "By the way, don't call her 'fucking wife', she is a Priestess after all. Show respect," Miroku chided, his monk side rearing up.  
  
'A higher sex drive?' Inuyasha thoughtfully began to eat the fish. Their lives were pretty rambunctious enough as it was. He didn't think that they needed anymore action. He grumbled something about lechers and what to do with them (an action which sounded like it would hurt very much to the poor demon used in the particular curse) before he looked at the bushes. He quickly swallowed the rest of the fish. "I'm going to go and check on her." He swiped the canteen as he walked by it.  
  
Kagome sat back on the balls of her feet and unlady like, wiped the back of her hand across her mouth and stared at her breakfast from the day before. Sitting back, Kagome's legs felt shaky and her muscles quivered, her whole stomach was still reeling. Steadying her breathing, Kagome closed her eyes and breathed in deeply. She had felt squeamish before, but never had she thrown up.  
  
Placing her hand protectively on her stomach, as though the child was already there, a being formed, Kagome got up and nearly bumped into Inuyasha. Embarrassment colored her cheeks, and she tried to hide her vomit from his sight. "I'm not much of a fish person," Kagome confessed, and shyly moved her hand away from her stomach.  
  
Staring at him for a moment, Kagome allowed her shoulders to slump. They were both inexperienced. "How're we going to do this?" she whispered softly.  
  
He handed her the canteen, and his empty hand reached out to cup her face, running his thumb over her blushing cheek. He gazed down at her fondly. "Then tomorrow night you can do the hunting." Inuyasha kissed her forehead tenderly, reaching his arms around her to hug her, taking careful care not to hold her too tight. "I don't know, Kagome, but we are. I mean, we've spent a month looking after Shippo together, and there haven't been any problems there. I don't know a lot about kids, Kagome, but I know that no matter what, you're going to be a wonderful mother."  
  
Inuyasha knew that his words were filled with truth. His heart told him that Kagome was going to be a great mother: something about her just made her the maternal type, the kind that knew what do when she held a baby, or how to make them smile. Inuyasha, on the other hand... Oh, he could deal well enough with kids, when they were old enough that sitting on them and tickling them was punishment. It was when babies were involved that he didn't know what to do.  
  
He slung the canteen over his shoulder when she handed it back to him, and she managed to smile a bit. Inuyasha took that as a good sign. He kissed the tip of her nose, his large hands rubbing her back. Burying his nose in her hair as he hugged her, he breathed in deeply, smelling only Kagome. "Don't worry about it. We'll, get through this together. We always will. Nothing short of death will keep me from being by your side, Kagome."  
  
Sometimes, when he was with Kagome, he felt less like himself and more like himself at the same time. Inuyasha lost his growl, his voice warming up to her. But he could not help his 'open mouth, insert foot' nature for very long. Eventually he would say something that would fuck him over, but Kagome would always eventually forgive him.  
  
Thankfully, this didn't happen as often as it had aboard the pirate ship. But every once in a while, he enjoyed teasing Kagome, just to watch her blush, and watch her fiery nature explode. Not to mention that when she got pissed off she got a huge power boost that made Inuyasha all the more aware of whatever it was that made Kagome be Kagome.  
  
"I love you," he said so quietly that the only way she could hear him was because she was cuddled against his chest. Since he had first said the words, they were easier to say, though not in a voice above a whisper, and never when he was looking her in the eye. If he tried to say it when she was looking at him, he somehow knew that his heart would break, for some inexplicable reason.  
  
Kagome looked up at him with watery eyes and nodded. Wrapping her arms around him, she snuggled as close as possible. He was a pirate. But he was her pirate. He was a demon, but he was her demon, he was many things. But he was hers no matter what, if in human or demonic form. They owned each others soul. "And to think I shot you when you broke my door..." Kagome whispered kissing the little thin mark that was left from where they exchanged blood. "It's been a month and it feels like a lifetime." Kagome whispered. "I never want it to end." She said and then pushed him away, running past him and falling to her knees once more and sufficiently emptying her guts all over the forest floor again. "I hate you..." She grumbled in between pukes.  
  
Sitting next to her, he once again passed her the canteen, knowing how easily it was to get dehydrated. Her being sick didn't mind him at all: she was no worse than Shippo had been before he got used to ships. He held her hair back for her, and thought nothing of it. "Hey, if I was in your position, I'd hate me too."  
  
"And what position would that be? All fours with your demon husband holding your hair like it were reins?" Kagome muttered jerking her hair away and sitting back on her haunches. "I'm sorry. I just hate throwing up."  
  
"Well how about next time I just let you vomit in your own hair?" he snapped.  
  
Kagome glared at him. "You suck." She retorted.  
  
Miroku entered their little clearing in the woods and nodded, an understanding expression on his face. "I am sure he does. But then again, you two would know that." Miroku said grinning. "Anyone want fish?"

* * *

Sango groaned, holding her head as her stomach tried to revolt at the feeling of nausea that suddenly hit her stomach. She put her head back down on the wet ground, and let the feeling pass. She counted to fifty before she tried to sit up again, and for good measure sat up slowly.  
  
Her eyes were slow to focus. That was no surprise, considering how badly she had gotten hit on the head. Her wrists and ankles felt heavy and cold. She didn't need to be a fool to know that she was chained up. She could hear dripping water, and the sound of heavy breathing, as if some giant monster was breathing into her neck.  
  
'No wonder,' she mentally snorted. 'I got kidnapped by fucking demons. It doesn't take a genius to know where they took me.'  
  
"Miroku...."  
  
"No. The name is Kagura." Said the demonic temptress, while leaning against the door of the dungeon and playing around with her fan, tapping it impatiently on the palm of her hand. "You took long enough waking up."  
  
"Pardon me for not fuckin' being on time," Sango mumbled. Her vision had cleared enough that she looked around. She was chained to the wall, and there was enough chain so that she could walk around, though not enough to let her touch the bars of her cell. Thankfully, they had gotten her after she'd finished dressing. Some of her packs were in the corner, but she doubted that her weapons –which she had not had a chance to put on- were still there.  
  
The dungeon was dank, a wet thing made of colorless rock and the smell of pestilence. She hated it, but sat on the longing for fresh air and trees. Sango needed to keep her head about her.  
  
The speaker had black hair pulled into a sensible bun. Her eyes were red, and the tapping of her fan was already starting to get annoying. Sango had never heard of her before, and was almost thankful for her name. "So, are you the one that orchestrated this little game, or are you just here to taunt me?"  
  
Kagura sneered, wrinkling her nose in disgust. "To be exact, I am here as your babysitter."  
  
"Oh, come now. Let's just be civil about this: you're here as my jailer," Sango snorted. She tried to cross her arms, but that felt too uncomfortable. She just sat there on the ground, still too dizzy to stand up. Her brown eyes showed all the anger her body couldn't. "What did you do with Miroku?"  
  
Kagura really hated Naraku for this. Not only was she a trapped pawn in this game, but she was a damn baby-sitter for a human female. Rolling her eyes, Kagura shrugged her shoulders back and let out an indignant huff. Her long fingers caressed the stem of her fan. "Miroku?" She questioned, knotting her perfectly sculptured brows together and cocking her head to the side, the long red beaded earrings jiggling about. "Oh. You mean the sexy monk," Kagura drawled, her fingers playing over her fan. "Nothing."  
  
Sango didn't quite believe Kagura, not after she called Miroku sexy, but she saw no reason not to believe her. A small amount of worry lifted off her shoulders, knowing that Miroku was okay. "That's _my _sexy monk you're talking about," she grumbled. Sango wanted to throw every threat she knew at the demon, but if they didn't know that she and Miroku were married, then she wasn't about to give up that information.  
  
The question of "why am I here" was right on the tip of her tongue, but she wasn't going to be so cliché. Instead, she arched an eyebrow, looking almost at ease with her imprisonment. "So?"  
  
"You know, I preferred you unconscious and snoring. You're a damn pest, always yapping. Don't you ever shut up?" Kagura demanded like a hissing snake, before turning on her sandaled foot and looking out of the little bars on the door window. Lowering her head, wisps of Kagura's hair fell forward and she sighed. Damn it. She could feel the silly female's eyes watching her. Turning on her heel, one hand on her hips, she looked provocative and sexy while the other hand dangled her fan about her shoulder. "Your sexy monk?" Kagura asked, a cruel streak shinning through her blood red eyes.  
  
"I do not snore!" Sango protested, barely able to believe that they were actually having this conversation while she was chained to a wall. She rolled her eyes. "And I think I know why you got assigned to baby-sit. It's the other way around. I'm actually the one doing the baby sitting!"  
  
Kagura smirked. "You've got guts. I'll give you that much. If however, little wit." Kagura brushed the girl off dismissively. This? This was the girl who had killed so many demons? What was Naraku up to going to make a public execution? She was nothing, this girl.  
  
She copied Kagura's grin almost exactly, her eyebrows drawing together in a dangerous expression. "I've got plenty of both, you'll find. Just wait till I get loose, and then I'll show you some real wit. But even chained up, I'm perfectly content, because at least I can have the last word when it comes to exchanging quips with the likes of you, Kagura!" Sango spat the name out.  
  
Kagura smirked. "And what likes am I?" She inquired dangerously.  
  
"I'm guessing somewhere in between a slut and a bitch," she growled, her tone mocking without the warmth it held when she teased Miroku. She seemed as cold as Kagura. "You can't get what you want, you get what you can take. And obviously whoever you've thrown your dice in with, it hasn't gotten you very much if you're here looking over me. Maybe you better start giving instead of just taking, Kagura. It could get you a little bit farther in life. I mean, warden to a chained up human? That's what? The equivalent to a pig keeper in human standards? If that's the case, then maybe it's your talent that denotes your rank, rather than your position."  
  
Kagura arched a single brow. "Is that all you've got?" She asked empathetically.  
  
"Oh, bite me, bitch," Sango growled. She really didn't have the mind for tossing around insults right now. Her stomach was growling and her head still throbbed. "Why don't you go fuck a cow or something, and leave me to fight off this headache by myself?"  
  
Kagura shrugged. "Because I am here until my shift comes to an end." Kagura answered truly unimpressed in the least by this "wondrous" demon slayer.  
  
There was a moment of silence, before Sango felt that she had to fall back on the old cliché she had tried to avoid. "So, why did I get captured? You guys obviously knew that I was a demon hunter, hence why you grabbed me after I bathed as opposed to an outright attack. And no doubt you did something to Miroku too, like an enchantment of some kind to keep him from coming and helping me. But I bet you went too far and made it look like I just upped and vanished. If so, then you guys aren't as smart as you claimed. Because that...."  
  
She stopped herself, her thought a sobering one. That would alert Miroku that something was wrong, and he'd come looking for her. No doubt he'd ask Inuyasha and Kagome for help too. 'Maybe it wasn't me they wanted all along. Maybe it's really them.' The thought made her feel weak: she was not a piece of bait, damn it! But she managed to keep her grin from wavering. "Well, I guess I'm not so dumb after all, Kagura."  
  
Kagura shrugged. "I am not a telepath. You might've thought up the wrong reason, in which case - You are."  
  
Sango sighed and leaned against the wall. "I should've stayed asleep..." she mumbled.  
  
Kagura nodded. "Won't you though?"  
  
"Because I want some answers!" Sango curled up in a ball. "Fuck this! Good night! I'm going to take a nap. Wake me up when the shift changes. Maybe the next demon will be a little bit more of a conversationalist!"  
  
Kagura smirked at that. _Kanna_? A conversationalist? How... enchanting. 


	5. Divide and Conquer

**AN**: And again! We meet! Greetings all! Sorry for keeping you all waiting, but don't worry... It was worth the wait! We have a darkly action filled chapter right here for you, staring your all time favorites... And surprise visits from a few beloved oldies...  
  
We promise a shorter wait! Seriously, **BoomBoomBaby**, we shouldn't be making you wait and will update much more often. Drama spices up here big time, so hopefully it'll sate you till next week... Muahahaha... I mean, ahem – nice smile  
  
**Sesshomaru's fluff is mine** – I love your name. It's so... Wonderful! But then again... I want it. Actually, I want Inu-Papa's fluff... Oh well, anyway glad you liked the previous chapter, hopefully this one will delight you as well!  
  
**Drake220**.... Yep. We had good moments. This one hopefully will have some more to add!  
  
Hope you all enjoy the newest chapter! Don't forget to review! Tell us what you think! We need your feedback! Enjoy! Ja ne!

* * *

Jakotsu sat in the tree and peered down at the group. "Ahhhh.... _Inuuuuyaaassshhhhaaa_.... I knew you'd return to me. You just couldn't stay away," Jakotsu murmured then stared at his own reflection in his sword, seductively passing his tongue over his lips and blowing himself a kiss. "Wife or not, you're mine. And so are those ears. _Ooooooo_! How I do want those ears!" Jakotsu drawled on then leapt off of the branch to land on the soft moss covering the ground.  
  
Kagome sat beside the fire and nibbled on berries. "How long have I been throwing up?" she asked, her cheeks red and not from the heat of the fire playing on them.  
  
"About two, maybe three hours. I've never realized morning sickness could be that bad," Miroku observed.  
  
"It was the fish," Kagome insisted.  
  
"Of course," Miroku agreed to play along and he did so, straight faced. "Of course. The Fish."His ears twitched. Inuyasha stood up on the branch, smelling the air, his ears flicking slightly as he tried to pick up on whatever sound it was that had caught his attention in the first place. He couldn't hear anything now. Inuyasha jumped down from the branch, landing and walking to stand protectively over Kagome in a series of movement that made it look like he'd never been in the tree in the first place. "Well, Kagome doesn't like fish. I'm afraid you're going to have to deal with fish and berries, at least for a little while. I could try catching a bunny or something, but I think the meat be a bit too rich for you. When we pass by a town, we'll send Miroku in the get some bread for you, or something."  
  
Inuyasha frowned, sensing something was wrong again. He automatically grabbed Kagome, pulling her out of the way just in the nick of time, as something that resembled a mechanical whip shot out of the forest. "Jakotsu!"  
  
Kagome gasped and leapt out of the way following Inuyasha's initial pull. "Wait! Kimono guy?!" Kagome hissed in surprise, wondering where the snake- like sword had disappeared too. It attacked her like a striking snake and was now no where to be found.  
  
"Inuyasha!" Miroku called pointing in the direction of the densest trees. "I think he's there."  
  
"Right!" Inuyasha nodded. He drew his sword and looked at Kagome. "You stay here, Kagome. This is my fight. Jakotsu's not coming out of this fight alive if I can help it. If he's going to try and hurt you to get to me, the bastard could at least be open about it."  
  
And Inuyasha leapt into the trees, already on the trail of the demon, now that he knew what to look for. Jakotsu was running away from camp? 'Probably to get me alone,' he thought, 'and the sad thing is that it's working.'  
  
Jakotsu seeing his interest approach stood in the middle of the clearing and blew Inuyasha a kiss. "I've missed you. _Inuuuuyasha_!" Jakotsu shouted and sent his sword flying.  
  
'Fucking psycho.' Inuyasha dodged the attack, and watched as it slashed the tree he had been in. He quickly apologized to the poor tree, landing on the balls of his feet. He easily would have blocked the attack with the large sword, but somehow he was expecting that blocking was not a god idea. If Jakotsu's sword wrapped around his... perish the thought! "I wish I could say the same for you, Jakotsu. I'm rather sad to see that you didn't drown when Shippo threw you overboard."  
  
"Oh... That. Well. I float," Jakotsu said leaping into the air and doing a flip, before landing while unleashing his sword towards Inuyasha again. The sword dangled and curved forward, snapping like a live snake towards him. "You should really go for a skinny dip with me sometime and see," Jakotsu proposed as he landed in a crouched position on the heavily leaved ground of the forest. "Mmm... That's a nice thought..." Jakotsu commented, his violet eyes taking Inuyasha's body in, in one long swift once-over.  
  
Damn it did he hate it when Jakotsu looked at him like some piece of meat! Inuyasha was so off kilter by this movement that before he knew it wood was slamming into his back and the sword was winding around him and the tree, quite effectively immobilizing him as it did cut him. His sword dropped from his hand, once again becoming a rusted antiquity. He glared at Jakotsu. "Okay, Jakotsu. What the fuck do you want?"  
  
Jakotsu grinned. "Have I ever told you how bondage does it for me?" Jakotsu questioned, yanking on his sword, pulling the blades tighter around Inuyasha's form, hugging him impossibly closer to the bark of the tree. "I want your ears. They are just so delicious..." Jakotsu murmured licking his lips and with a twist and pull, he sent the edge of his sword rising up towards Inuyasha's head. "I **want** them," Jakotsu said simply.  
  
Panting with excitement and lust, Jakotsu couldn't help licking his lips again. "You look SO delicious. And I have so many things to punish you for... _Ooooo_.... _Inuuuyashaaaa_.... You'll be my favorite river of blood and remains."  
  
He hissed as the blades pulled tighter, starting to cut into his skin. Let them cut. He could put the blood to good use! Inuyasha's golden eyes looked even fiercer when he stared at Jakotsu. "What is it with the ears?" he roared. His fury was in his voice only, knowing that struggling unnecessarily against the blades would only result in more wounds than he needed.  
  
"What's the matter, Jakotsu? Why so quick to cut me up? You've been after me for years, so what the hell are you doing trying to kill me before you do to me whatever your sick little fantasies have been showing you at night." He nearly rolled his eyes. Great: give the psycho demon ideas. Inuyasha wasn't sure that he was the saner demon, suddenly.  
  
Jakotsu grinned at Inuyasha. "I always knew you would be in to it too.... Forget about that stupid woman. She is, after all, a woman. You don't need her..." Jakotsu purred and tried to calm his heaving chest, fingers pulling the opening of his kimono wider across his chiseled chest. The sexual tension between the two, as far as Jakotsu was concerned, was thick enough to be cut. "Because, _Inuyasha_... You gave my kimono to a _woman_ and left rather abruptly... That, and I always wanted to know just how dark your blood flows and how wildly it pours...."  
  
Jakotsu ran his fingers down his Adam's apple, the only giveawayto his true sex. Pulling the broach out of his hair, he thought how lovely it would look pierced through one of Inuyasha's ears attached through his dark hair. Yes. A perfect accessory.  
  
"Killing you is only part of the fun." Jakotsu sighed, looking slightly disappointed, even if his lust for the kill and prey didn't ebb. "It's what happens afterwards that doubles the pleasure," Jakotsu purred.  
  
Inuyasha was back to being certain that he was the sanest one there. He felt blood run down his arm, and he tilted his hands to catch it, praying that Jakotsu wouldn't notice the action. All he needed was a little bit more time, and he could do it. Then there was just the trick of getting Jakotsu to step a wee bit closer. Inuyasha didn't want to miss.  
  
"Wouldn't you prefer it if the body was still warm?" Inuyasha growled. "If there was still a pulse? And don't I get a goodbye kiss?"  
  
The next thing he knew, there were a pair of lips pressing up against his that he normally would have beaten someone senseless for suggesting that they would one day meet. The blood running down his arm finally touched his hand, and he leaned into that particular blade a little bit more, encouraging more of it out.  
  
Luckily, a cough made Jakotsu stop. Unfortunately, Inuyasha knew that he would never live it down: the smile on Miroku's face said that clearly enough. "Well, well," he said, and Inuyasha swore - the smile grew. "It's a good thing I told Kagome to watch the camp. I'd hate to know what she would think of this."  
  
"Hey! I know exactly what I'm doing!" He clenched his fist and felt the blood seep under his nails. He wrenched that hand free. "Hijin Ketsusou!" Struggling against the snake-like sword even as they cut into his skin, he only needed a little bit more room, and then he could use the Sankon Tessou.

* * *

Back at camp, Kikyo scoffed as she watched the men run off. Naraku was right. If she waited long enough, the timing would come to her. She watched Kagome busy herself about camp for a moment, moving slowly, occasionally holding her stomach, sometimes with a slightly green face and other times with her eyes staring at some pleasant thought as it danced in front of her.  
  
She looked down at the ground. It was lifeless under her feet, but the ground on which Kagome stood: it was green. She gritted her teeth. They were both priestesses! Why was it that the forest was responding to Kagome and not to her? 'I'll have to ask Naraku after I bring him back Inuyasha's whore.' She just couldn't bring herself to call Kagome Inuyasha's wife.  
  
"Excuse me," she said gently, stepping into the little clearing where they had made their camp. Kikyo had lost her priestess robes and wore a simple red dress, no lighter or darker than that of blood. "Might I enjoy the comfort of your fire for a moment?"  
  
Kagome's head shut up in reaction to the Priestess's presence. Holding her breath for a moment, Kagome couldn't help but wonder what another human, female Priestess was doing here... In the demon world. But beyond anything else, Kagome couldn't turn the woman back. "Of course," Kagome offered moving to sit on the opposite side of the fire from her. "I never thought to meet someone like you here," Kagome confided.  
  
She sat down across from the fire, her eyes concealing the anger lurking under the thin veneer of respectability she wore. "Oh, humans sometimes venture into the demon world. We fall here by accident, or escape from our demon captives. I fell here by accident." It was the closest Kikyo could come to telling Kagome the truth. She had fallen into the demon world, true enough, but not the way that Kagome would think she meant. "Myself, I'm surprised to find you here when you are with child, and a demon one at that."  
  
Kagome's head snapped up, her brown eyes wide as she stared at Kikyo, her hand instinctively reaching out towards her bow. "How did you know?" Kagome whispered fighting the urge to shelter her stomach with her hand.  
  
"Can you not look at others and tell that they are with child?" Kikyo quickly asked, each question already with an answer to support it planned out in her mind. She peered over the fire, and gave the tiniest of smiles. "But perhaps I am wrong about the parenthood. All I can sense around me is demons. And why should it not be that way? This is the world of demons; their signature is engraved even upon the smallest rock. Or can you not feel that either?"  
  
Kagome paused, her hand tightening around her bow and bringing it towards her slowly and idly. "I can usually tell when their stomachs are big and fat," Kagome retorted, somewhat jealous inside of the Priestess's power. Looking around, Kagome decided it would be best to keep her child's parentage a secret. For now. It wasn't safe anywhere to go around telling who her husband was. "I sense sadness and death around me. Not demons as much as that," Kagome said then peered at the woman curiously over the flames. "What's your name? How long have you been here?"  
  
She smiled inwardly. Inuyasha picked a weak priestess for his bride! Kikyo could take her easily.... "My name is Eurydice. I have been in this world for a month or so, and have found no way home yet. How in the world did you end up here, Lady...?"  
  
"I'm searching for a friend. Have you seen another woman pass by here? She might've been in the company of demons," Kagome explained, wondering about the feeling of dread she had taking root and building up inside of her. Studying Eurydice, Kagome could practically feel the cold of the woods flowing through her, and the name just didn't seem to fit.... Shaking her head, Kagome wondered where Inuyasha and Miroku were. Why they hadn't returned yet. "Why haven't you returned home yet?"  
  
"Because I have found no way home," Kikyo responded, starting to think that Kagome was not just weak, but a fool as well. And Kagome had given her the perfect opportunity to take her away from Inuyasha. "A woman with long brown hair? There was a human with a strong aura who came through here only just yesterday, bound and gagged to a horse. The demons called her Sango, and said something about a monk..."  
  
Kagome almost jumped for joy. "Do you know where they took her?" Kagome asked hopefully. A nagging voice in her head commenting about the woman sitting opposite of her. Something she should remember about that particular shade of black her hair had.  
  
Nodding slowly, Kikyo explained, "I tried to rescue her, but the demons numbered many. They took her to a castle west of here, one that as heavily guarded. A single Priestess may not be able to break inside, but two might."  
  
Kagome thought about it and looked over to the direction of west. "Perhaps. But I have companions with me," Kagome said, now wondering why the woods were so quiet and Miroku and Inuyasha were still not returning.  
  
"But they are not here, and we are," Kikyo rationalized. "And while we wait for your friends to return, your captive companion might be in mortal danger. Can you risk waiting for them if you know that this girl Sango's death is on your time?"  
  
Kagome studied the woman before her. "I have to. We're a team. I cannot pick up my skirts and go, I need to wait for them. We'll make up for the lost time with them. Don't worry," Kagome said her free hand pawing lightly at the arrows on the other side of her. "You seem more lively then you were a moment ago," Kagome said and closing her hand over an arrow shook her head at the woman. "But still you feel as cold as this forest."  
  
Her eyes narrowed slightly over the top of the dancing fire. Maybe Kagome wasn't as stupid as she seemed.... For the first time since she arrived in the clearing, Kikyo told the truth. "I have been here for a month. My power has been all but drained out of me by the land itself. I have had many sleepless nights, haunted by the fear of demons. And I was very hurt by someone I loved. It was because of him that I fell here."  
  
Kagome felt a pang of empathy for her. "Are you healed?" Kagome asked, drawing bow and arrow close. "My friends and I can help you if you need," Kagome offered, knowing the feeling of potential hurt by someone you loved. "Perhaps, I can help your powers with my own," Kagome offered, knowing too how it felt to have the land drink out her powers. One would think that with all the demons about, the land wouldn't be craving so for magic, but it was, like parched soil seeking water.  
  
Like Kagome, Kikyo felt a surge of empathy. Perhaps, had Inuyasha not become involved, they might have become friends. Though Kagome's power and brains seemed somewhat lacking, from Kikyo's point of view, she seemed to have an honest heart. Kikyo would almost feel guilty about twisting it around, if she didn't already loath it for being touched by Inuyasha. "That's a wonderful thought, but my... retribution must be my own. I shall heal myself. That's the thing I have found about being a woman, about being a Priestess: it's safer, easier, and quicker to be by yourself. You can look out for the people you are supposed to protect equally. You can move around effectively. To be a Priestess is to eternally be alone."  
  
Kagome felt that sentence hit home. Like the prick of a needle it stabbed at her. But the falter in thoughts only spilled over her face for a moment, before she shook her head. "I use to think that too. But to be a Priestess is to give of yourself to others, and you can share that giving with someone you love. Because, we are after all, human. To be human is to love and be loved. If you find someone right, they can help you help others, they can be there for you, and your people when needed. I think being alone deprives our hearts and souls, which we need so much in our task." Kagome whispered softly, somewhat to herself even though it was directed towards Kikyo. Kagome thought about Miroku and Sango, her good friends, about Shippo the little demon who was so sweet and helpful, but most of all loving, and then of Inuyasha and she could feel her power flow through her. Kagome's thoughts drifted to her baby. "Sometimes, we need another anchor in this world to keep ourselves centered."  
  
'Articulate whore,' she spat. Kikyo was quickly finding the words that Kagome spoke were wrapping around her like a blanket, but her anger pushed them away, now rearing its evil head on Kagome too, and not just on Inuyasha. "Well then, Priestess, I hope for your sake you cannot experience the pain that I have gone through. I believe duty should be our anchor, not a man. If it is a man, we start to forget what we are, and our responsibility."  
  
There was a flash of a pulse rush through the air... Was that power? Kagome wondered as she tried to sense out the source of it. Rightfully in these woods there was nothing to give off such an aura, the opposite actually. These woods were sucking off of any that came near them in fact. Suspicion alongside sudden nausea rose within her as Kagome studied the fellow Priestess wearily. "How did you manage to survive so long in this demon world?" Kagome asked speculatively. "Duty can weigh on us till we have nothing to give. Even a Shepard needs help with his herd," Kagome reminded. "To be with someone does not mean to forget ourselves. We are each individuals. We cannot lose ourselves within the arms of another, if we do not let ourselves," Kagome said her brown eyes focused on the other woman. "Do you speak this way because you have lost yourself?" Kagome asked tentatively.  
  
"I did whatever I had to do to stay alive, and I know exactly who I am. I have not lost myself in the slightest," she quickly answered, sounding insulted. This was ridiculous! She had to get Kagome back to Naraku. And if Kagome wasn't going to come willingly, then Kikyo would have to use force. "Are you feeling well?" she inquired gently, knowing the pain that pregnant women sometimes went through.  
  
Kagome swallowed the vile taste rising up in her mouth. "Not really. As you pointed out earlier, I'm expecting," Kagome said, not making the slightest move towards her stomach, feeling like she was being watched by some predator. Any sudden movement would trigger a pounce. "Though I am still early in the pregnancy, it seems my food still does not want to stay down," Kagome said under her breath.  
  
Kikyo nodded, and slowly drew a pouch from the folds of her blood red dress. "Have you a cup and some water? I can give you a drink that will help to ease your stomach, and provide a bit of sleep." She smiled sweetly. "I'm sure that your friends wouldn't be so callous as to deny an expecting mother an hour or so of sleep. Besides, you refuse to leave until they return, and who knows how long that could be!"  
  
Kagome eyed the little pouch wearily. "What is it?" Kagome asked sniffing at the offered cup from the Priestess's hands. "They wouldn't... No," Kagome said thinking back to Miroku making her rest and Inuyasha offering her water and something about a haircut. Holding the cup in her hand, Kagome tried to feel the woman's aura... But she couldn't find anything demonic. Taking a sip, she was desperate for anything to help her swirling stomach, and right now, a Priestess was just who she needed for help. But after the sip slivered down her throat, was when Kagome realized that true she didn't pick anything demonic up from her, but she didn't pick anything else up either. "Wha..?" Kagome whispered feeling her body begin to go numb and her mind tired.  
  
She knelt in front of Kagome, her eyes searching hers. "The dead don't carry auras. Why else do you think that nothing grew on my side of the fire, while yours continued to grow?" She sighed. "You're a strong one. Most people would have been completely knocked out by that potion." Kikyo's face contorted into a sneer. "No matter. I quite like it this way. You can watch for any sign of your precious Inuyasha to come and save you, slipping into hopelessness when he doesn't. How can he really come and rescue you? Do you know what he's out there doing, Kagome? He went off with a miscreant monk! They left you high and dry to visit the brothels and the taverns, too bored with the idea of babysitting a pregnant woman for a child Inuyasha doesn't want."  
  
Kagome coughed and struggled to move. If she could only launch her arrow into.... Her arms were at her side numb, not reacting to the commands. Trying to shift her feet, Kagome only felt her own weight weighing her down. "_N-no_..." Kagome tried to yell, but it came out a faint whisper, fainter then her gasping breaths. 'Poison?' Kagome thought, panicked, then shot that thought away, if it was she'd feel it. Inuyasha and Miroku going off to a tavern? No. Not with Sango... Not with her... Thousands upon thousands of thoughts ran through her mind, denying the woman's scornful words. 'He'll come. He'll save me.' Kagome thought forcefully, pushing all other worries away. Feeling her fingers uncurl from around the arrow and fall limp, Kagome's eyes stared up at the woman. 'He wants the baby. He wants me. He wants us both. He just didn't want you...' "Kik...yo..." Kagome managed the last aloud.  
  
Her eyes widened slightly. "So. You aren't really as dumb as you pretend to be." With almost demonic strength, she picked up Kagome and threw her over her shoulder. Whistling to herself softly, she began the walk back to the awaiting carriage parked not too far away. Kagome would be in Naraku's hands before the sun settled. 


	6. All is lost and lost souls run

**AN**: Well, it took me a hell of a time to update and that is just because I was lazy. Well. Alright, no I wasn't lazy... Ok. Yes I was. I'm sorry!! Gomen!!! As punishment, I will allow PoF to have Inuyasha for an entire afternoon while I play with non... ::sniffs:: It's fair... Isn't it?

Anyway, we are back with an uber long chapter... That also happens to be a particularly dark one. So this is a warning, this chapter is rated R for graphic descriptions and language. You have been warned.

It might be dark but it is one hell of a good chapter with a few hair pin twists and turns. ::Grins:: You are in for a treat. In fact, you are in for a few eye openers and 'no way!'s.

So come on and read! Enjoy the chapter, next update will be very soon in a few more days to be exact. Please review! We could really use your feedback and we love hearing from you guys! Thank you to all of those wonderful people who have read, enjoyed and reviewed so far! We love our fans!! Inuyasha's and puppy dog ears for all!

* * *

Inuyasha shuddered at the memory. "I think that Kagome will be glad to have a new kimono to wear," he said, nearly wincing, either from pain or from the idea of what Kagome would do to him when she learned how he'd gotten it. His shirt was in tatters, but the fire rat material would mend itself in time. "Just no telling Kagome how we got it, alright? I prefer not being deaf. I wish we'd killed the bastard...."  
  
"Yeah, well..." Miroku muttered rubbing his sliced up shoulder. "Next time we should get the damn sword away _then_ we'd be able to kill him," Miroku said and spat out some blood he had in his mouth. "But hey! We beat him!" Miroku piped up and looked the kimono over. "I'm still in shock it didn't tear when you did that... Tell me, is that the same move you use with Lady Kagome?" Miroku asked looking back down the path from whence they came. "You know once he gets over being defeated, he'll come back. Right?" Miroku asked remembering the death glare Jakotsu granted them before swiping the sword at them and disappearing. "Man's more demon then you... No insult there."  
  
"None taken. It's true after all," Inuyasha shrugged. "And never used that move on Kagome. She used it on me," he grinned. He could hear nothing from the clearing except for the fire. Kagome must finally have fallen asleep. But when he entered the clearing, Inuyasha found himself wrong. Kagome wasn't there at all. He called out her name, his ears twitching as he listened for signs of her ailment again, but could find none. Then he realized that there was another scent in the clearing. He stopped dead in his tracks, his skin as cold as the heart of the woman he smelled. "Kikyo."  
  
Miroku threw a sideways look at Inuyasha. "You mean Kagome." Miroku corrected.  
  
He glared at his friend. "When I say Kikyo, I mean Kikyo; and when I say Kagome, I mean Kagome. Kikyo was here. I can smell her."  
  
Miroku studied Inuyasha closely. Maybe life was really getting to him, Miroku thought, wondering if he shouldn't have gone on search for Sango alone. "Inuyasha, Kikyo has been dead for years. Kagome probably went to relieve herself in the bushes," he rationalized.  
  
"I know," he agreed. "But I can smell her. She was here, Miroku. She was here when we were fighting Jakotsu. Her scent is fresh."  
  
Inuyasha began to walk around the clearing, his silver-white hair hiding his face as he tried to put together what had happened. He stood on the side of the fire that looked slightly drier than the other. "She sat here. Kagome probably sat opposite her, where the grass looks a little greener. Eventually, Kikyo stood up, and walked towards Kagome. There were herbs...." The cup still lay by the fire, a canteen within arms reach of where Kagome had been sitting. "Then their scents mingle, and...." He looked up in the direction that his senses told him they walked off in. "And then they headed back for the road...."  
  
Miroku watched Inuyasha with amazement. He never realized he could actually use his senses like that. "You picked all that up with your nose?" Miroku asked then considered the road. "They may be heading down to the castle where Sango is being kept." Miroku said thoughtfully, not believing the turns of bad luck they were having.  
  
He nodded. "It's most definitely possible." A low growl escaped his throat. What the hell was Kikyo doing alive? More importantly: what was she doing with Kagome? Inuyasha began to pack up their camp, but glanced over at Miroku as he was rolling up Kagome's sleeping bag, confusion slipping out from behind the golden mask of his eyes. "I mean, she was dead, wasn't she? I heard, but.... I couldn't even get out of bed. What if she never really died and Sesshomaru tricked us all?"  
  
Miroku couldn't bring himself to look at Inuyasha. Instead he busied himself with putting out the fire, his back to his friend. "I... She was dead Inuyasha." Miroku said the memory of Sesshomaru dragging her body on deck and then pulling her up to the crows nest, making everyone see her suddenly fresh in his mind. Sesshomaru had left her there for a whole afternoon like a flag, the sun burning away at her skin, before letting her down and throwing her overboard for the sharks and sea demons to eat. "She was dead," Miroku finished, his booted foot stomping out the embers.  
  
Crackling his knuckles, he picked up the bag and Kagome's bow and arrow. He didn't really have any beef with whatever god or power was out there, he just wished that they would find someone else to fuck over for once. Inuyasha had had enough of it! All he wanted was to go home with his wife and live normally, or at least as normal as a half demon could live. 'Miroku's right. I have gotten soft.' Inuyasha quickly disappeared to get some more fresh water from the fishing river, and returned to thank the trees for sheltering them.  
  
A wind suddenly picked up, and their branches swayed. The pale blew light of just after dawn swayed between green leaves, as the trees seemed to dance. Inuyasha stared at them, swearing that the trees were talking to them. He nudged Miroku gently, wondering if the monk knew what was going on with the forest. "Have you seen anything like this before?"  
  
Miroku shook his head wondering himself what was going on. "No." He said at last, feeling an itch in his good hand to want to unwind the Buddha beads from his cursed one. "See? This is why I always hated this world and traveled back to the other. You don't know what the fuck is alive and with what fucking powers." Miroku muttered wondering where the wind was coming from. It seemed to be blowing at them from all directions. But that couldn't be, could it? "Inuyasha, I don't think it's the forest's doing." Miroku replied in low tones to his companion as he picked up his walking stick, nudging it now so that a blade popped out of the top, turning it into quite the weapon.  
  
"Well, in that case I believe a hasty retreat is in order." Inuyasha was no coward, but he knew that a fight now would be more trouble than it was worth. He sniffed the air, finding the signature left behind by a walking ghost and his wife, and broke into a run, following the signature. When Miroku caught up, Inuyasha grinned at him. "Almost just like old times, no?"

* * *

Nobody was guarding Sango. Finally! She almost thanked them. She reached for her back, and found it just out of reach. She tried again, but still her fingers just managed to touch the fabric before the strain became too much. Sango looked around for something to give her an extra inch or two, before she heard what sounded like a cat. A pale, stripped cat like demon appeared, pushing the bags forward. Sango smiled and pulled her bags to her. The cat followed. "I don't know who or what you are, but thank you." She stroked the little demon, which purred and curled up on her lap as she began to sort through her bags.  
  
Just because Sango was a demon hunter it didn't mean that she thought all demons were bad, after all. Finding some food, she gave some strips of meat to the cat before devouring a ration herself. Rations had never tasted so good. The demons had done a good job of disarming everything she had. Any thing with a blade was gone. But there was still an ace or two up her sleeve yet.  
  
Pulling out her hairbrush, she cracked open the space between the bristles and the handle, careful not to cut herself on the hair that was hidden there. It had been saved from one of her encounters with Yura. Sango never had liked that demon. She grinned as she pulled it through the chains on her feet, almost laughing when the single hair slashed the chains in half. There was nothing she could do about the manacles now, but at least she was free.  
  
Once all the chains were off, Sango placed the cat on the ground, but the cat leapt up and stayed on her shoulder. Sango smiled as the demon meowed. She used the hair to cut the lock, and then carefully put it away. There was no way she could carry all her belongings with her, so she had placed the most important ones into the smallest back, and then slung it over her shoulder. She stepped out into freedom, or at least slight freedom. Sango glanced at the cat. "I don't suppose you know where I can get myself a sword, do you?"  
  
"It's a demon cat. It meows. Doesn't talk." A seductive feminine voice spoke. Standing on the opposite side of the hall from her, Kagura stood there with her kimono draped over her seductively, her fan tipping over her shoulder thoughtfully. "You surprised me by getting this far. Now it's time to go back to your cell." Kagura said, smiling wickedly before spreading her fan open and waving it in one fluid movement at Sango, the wind rippling through the hall practically tearing the moss off of the old stones, aimed directly for her and her newfound pet.  
  
Sango swore and jumped back into the cell, letting the wave pass her by. Kirara meowed, as if trying to get her attention. The moment it was gone, Sango bolted out of the cell and started running, not toward Kagura, but away. Her steps were fast, her heels never even touching the ground. Sango ran like a human cheetah, turning down the first hallway she could find as another wave of wind crashed into the dead end wall. 'A weapon could really be nice!' her mind screamed, knowing she could do little with her bare hands against a demon.  
  
Kagura sighed. "I hate it when they are persistent." Kagura murmured and closed her fan. Walking slowly after Sango, the ultimate predator taking her time, Kagura came upon Sango with an arched brow. "Do you have a death wish?" Kagura asked smiling cruelly, swinging her fan once more in Sango's direction. "You can run as fast as you want, but darling, I control the winds. You can't out run them." Kagura reminded viciously.  
  
Sango dodged the attack, slamming rather roughly against the walls. Her hair stung her face as they whipped around her. Kagura's attacks wouldn't be so damn hard if the dungeon didn't act like a wind tunnel! Sango smiled grimly. "You're absolutely right, Kagura. You do control the winds." And right before they came, that damned fan moved. She darted forward with bawled fists, planning on knocking the accursed fan out of her hand.  
  
Kagura smiled a slightly dry, yet highly amused smile. It barely registered on her thinly lined lips. With a simple twitch of her fingers to the fan's hilt, Kagura sent another gust of wind rushing down the hall. "The only reason you aren't dead yet, is because I got orders you are not to die before the public execution, now be a dear and give up." Kagura said in her low, yet rich voice.  
  
The wind caught her and slammed her into a wall. Her head hit it hard, and she saw stars. Touching the back of her head lightly, Sango winced. It hurt but she didn't feel any blood. Sango picked herself back up, wondering where the cat had run off to. She hoped it was safe. "You hide behind that fan of yours, Kagura. Too scared to take me on hand to hand?"  
  
"No. I just don't want to filthy my nails with you." Kagura said simply and noted the little albino girl all clad in white appear on the opposite side of the hall, sporting a small mirror between her hands, sufficiently trapping Sango between the two. "I suggest you head into your cell. Kanna's mirror is known to suck in souls."  
  
She was practically sulking as she glanced between them, before her shoulder sagged. "All right. I'm going, I'm going." Sango started heading back to her cell, defeated, but only temporarily.

* * *

Kikyo swept up to the throne triumphantly, gently placing Kagome's body down on the ground so that Naraku could see that she had been careful not to hurt his prize. She smiled as she hovered over Kagome's body, the affects of her brew starting to wear off. "It was easy, Your Majesty. They had left her all alone, as you said they would. It was like they let me take her. And knowing Inuyasha, he probably did let me take you...."  
  
She brushed past Kagome and knelt beside the throne, laying her head on his lap as she stared at Kagome's weak, and curled form. "Look at her. She really does act like his bitch, even waiting patiently at home for her master to arrive, never realizing he abandoned you...."  
  
Naraku's face was an expressionless work of art, statuesque like in its coldness. He didn't waver or move, as his fathomless eyes looked down upon the prone body. To be so close to such power, was exhilarating. He imagined that Kikyo in her day gave off the same amount of power, but for some reason he doubted with this much purity. Reaching out with his aura to touch the Priestess's he could taste the purity, the richness of the innocence, and the easiness of corruption. "It is the mother's heart that rules before the babes," Naraku mused aloud, then held out to Kikyo a sliver of a shard. It was black as pitch. "You've done well. Impressed me," he said unsympathetically. "Now place this to her forehead, wait until her skin consumes it."  
  
She stared at the black shard, gently taking it. Her lips pouted slightly, wishing for more attention than 'you've impressed me', but knowing she would receive none. Her hair moved about her face like black water, and she stared up at her prettily, like a captured dove that had been all too willing to be caged. "Why, my Lord? What is it?"  
  
"It is a powerful tool," Naraku answered dismissingly. "It will help us control her," Naraku explained, his bottomless eyes suddenly gathering a spark of amusement in them. "You do wish to toy with her, do you not?" he asked, his cruelty and malice shinning in his dark black eyes.  
  
"Of course I do," she answered indignantly, her pride and power back for a second. It was forgotten as she glided like a puppet down to Kagome, placing the jewel on the other priestess's forehead and holding it there until the girl's flesh seemed to seep over it, letting the jewel become a part of her, the potion Kikyo had given her keeping her from protesting at the union of jewel and body. She stood up, staring down at the body with dead eyes. "I want a new toy...."  
  
"Then play with her. The only way that shard works is to feed off of fears, hates, and darkness in one's heart," Naraku said watching Kikyo with a stony expression. "In each human being, there is such a darkness. Even in her bright and cheerful one," Naraku commented, his eyes half lidded, looking bored, almost tired. "Her heart is now consumed by weakness," Naraku said his pupils focusing now on the once dead Priestess. "The same weakness that took your life- Inuyasha. She can hear you, but she can not fight you. Why don't you tell her all about her beloved?" Naraku offered, his voice dull with boredom.  
  
Toying with her fingers for a moment, she thought about what to say. Kikyo would have preferred to do this without Naraku staring down at her, but she would take what she could get. Kikyo knelt beside Kagome, her voice almost soothing, but hardening quickly.  
  
"He kidnapped me the same way he kidnapped you. He barged into my house, and took me from my home, from everything I knew. When I awoke he was standing over me, looking at me like I was a piece of meat. When he saw you he wanted you, wanted to own you. Did he even tell you about me? About what he did to me, about what he did to this body? No, he keeps them in his sick little mind so he can replay them whenever he wants." She grinned cruelly. "The same way that the time when he shattered your wrist replays in his mind every day. Every night you consummate your marriage, he has that thought, feeling the power that came from the moment your bones snapped in just one of his hands. And do you know why? Because he knows that if you ever don't please him, he can do it again, that when he tires of your moans, he can hear your screams, because you're weak...."  
  
Kagome's eyes flashed open as she stared up at Kikyo and shook her head, as though that alone could shake those sickening vile lies, that spread like a spider web off her.  
  
"More. She is steadfast in her beliefs." Naraku's voice sounded like soft thunder through the room.  
  
Kikyo nodded, and her voice became a gentle purr, almost soothing, hypnotizing in pronunciation and delivery. "You were his pet. He even admitted it to you. 'Yeah, that's right. I had my kicks, and now you're getting kicked out'," she said, quoting Inuyasha from their first major fight, the night after the storm. "Were his kicks even worth it? You said he was a horrible lover, and he was, wasn't it? He never took the initiative for himself. He barely knew where to stick it the first time you had sex. 'It hurt too much with your fumbling on top of me.' Don't you recall what happened the one time you fought back? You told him how much you hated him, and he glared at you. Do you recall seeing the anger in his eyes, anger at his PET acting up? He ripped off your clothes and flung them on the bed. How many other women on the pirate ship do you think had their lives end that way? But this just aroused you, made you want him more. What do you think would have happened if you had not been so willing? He would have raped you, without a single qualm for how you really felt. 'Stop'. Isn't that what you said when you first had sex? But did he stop? 'We can't do this'. But you did it."  
  
Naraku's eyes narrowed. He knew Kikyo had evil and emptiness festering in her soul, but he hadn't believed she could use it to her advantage. Naraku then made a note to himself not to underestimate the once dead Priestess. Midnight eyes watched, fixed as one female worked her clawing evil on the other. Two women fighting over one male... Naraku allowed a dry smile. He really didn't have to bother with the Inu siblings. The women connected to them will shatter them both from either end and side.  
  
Raising his eyes, Naraku saw the small petite figure clad in white standing on the far side of the wall, her mirror tightly between her tiny hands, reflecting the scenes that had taken place over the sea.  
  
Naraku's eyes seemed to darken if possible, with malice and hardly noticeable pleasure. He remained in his seat, leaning back against the hard back of it and watched with morbid interest how Kikyo tore into the woman's worries. They were Kikyo's own, her reflected over feelings from when she was alive that remained in her, he knew. Yet he still found himself impressed with how she shifted the hate and pain from her former existence to this woman's current one.  
  
Kagome's eye stared up at Kikyo. A deep emotion beginning to brew inside them, even as self doubt gnawed at her belief and defenses. "It... Wasn't... Like... That... He wouldn't... Hurt me!" Kagome managed to gasp out, her powers raging in attempt to break the spell, her will power fighting against the evil words being thrown at her, while her heart was slowly starting to give way. But when she felt a sudden surge of warmth run through her, at the memory of the boat, the boat where their child was consumed Kagome's spirits were built back up. "You know nothing!" she yelled, sweat beads building on her brow from the excretion.  
  
"Oh, but it did hurt you, little Kagome," Kikyo cooed. "And then he told you that he had been a virgin when he took you to his bed. A virgin! You were twice an idiot for not realizing that he was lying. He took the boundary from my body the same way he took yours, only you were at least willing at the time! He took mine as my blood dripped on the floor, and my throat was already too scratched to scream!"  
  
Kagome's eyes widened as they stared up at Kikyo. She looked so alive, so real, the pain in her eyes so genuine... Kagome almost found herself believing her. She couldn't speak, instead she just whimpered and shook her head. The toll for using so much magic in attempt to break the spell was getting to her. Her breathing hard, Kagome swallowed loudly and shook her head. "**NO**!" She managed to scream, but inside the voice of self-doubt was getting louder, not as easy to ignore anymore.  
  
He is a demon after all, and he was a pirate. Remember how he broke into your house? Remember how he said he gave the girls to Kouga? Remember his treatment? The threat of being thrown over board to the sharks, do you actually think a man like him would wait until he found the perfect one? Would wait until his heart sang like yours? He would stick it anywhere. A man who had no qualms about stealing a woman from her bedroom at night, wouldn't have any problems raping one senseless.  
  
Kagome's heart answered back meekly, but still forcefully. I believe in MY heart. It wouldn't lie. I have always had the best judgment of people. I can tell when they are evil, and he isn't... He's good... He stayed.  
  
Until he's bored with you.  
  
"Because of your compliance, because of your weakness, you're now pregnant. Has he told you how he feels? As he told you what he wants? No. He doesn't talk to you about it all, because he doesn't know who the father is. 'Chances are it's mine'. Chances are, Kagome? He must think of the baby as a lottery, eager to see if the babe will be his or his brother's! Oh yes, Kagome, you were raped, that much his true. What will you do when the child belongs to Sesshomaru? You know that the child is his. Sesshomaru is the stronger of the brothers, his seed is more potent. What will Inuyasha do when the child has your fair skin and the marking of the demon lord? He'll kill the babe. Why would he want to raise the son of his half brother, born from the stomach of his own wife? Inuyasha will kill the child. Think of how easily he snapped your wrist! How easy will he snap the neck of your babe?"  
  
Kagome could feel the spell breaking through her barriers, its poison seeping into her. Making her mind muddled, causing her to feel dirty... Forcing her to lose touch with herself and fall into a dark abyss.  
  
"Chances are?" Kagome remembered yelling at him. Her lids feeling heavy, they fell over her watery eyes. "Chances are..." She remembered the pain in his eyes when he saw her, was it pain for her though?  
  
No. It was pain that his pet had been played with without permission. His brother got a go at the goods.  
  
But... He didn't...  
  
Really? How long did you ache for? Are you going to say it was all from how rough your husband - the voice inside of her whispered mockingly - fucked you? You remember the terror, don't you? The pain... How you wished you were dead. How he pressed against you and tore into you.  
  
He tore into the bite... Into the bite!  
  
Is that all he tore into? The voice cackled.  
  
Kagome's eyes shot open and she stared emptily at Kikyo. Her wrist hurting as though Inuyasha had just broken it.  
  
He didn't mean to though.  
  
Didn't he? You know how rough he likes to be. How strong he is. How he loses himself in the bed. Remember him when he was human? He was a demon. He cannot ever become human. Only the most powerful of demons can turn their looks to those of human nature. That's what he did. He wasn't human. He was a full demon. He was a demon plundering you.  
  
He loves me. He would never hurt me.  
  
_HE ALREADY HAS_! The voice rattled through her, shattering all that remained of her resistance, of her powers, of her denial. Letting out a scream of pure pain, heartbreak and an aching loss, Kagome fell back limply against the floor and stared up at the ceiling.  
  
The babe isn't his. It's Sesshomaru's. Sesshomaru was at least honest with you from the first minute, he wanted to pain you and he has, in the worst way. You are carrying his child, his heir. And your beloved husband will slaughter the baby the second the cord is cut, before he has taken his second breath, he'll eat him like a demon. He'll murder him. And probably kill you too afterwards, for being so willful with another.  
  
Do you really want to condemn your babe to such a fate? Her broken, fragment missing heart taunted. Kill it now. Before he can. Before the monster you have slept with, the monster everyone else recognized but you will kill.  
  
"He loves me..." Kagome cried, only then realizing when she felt the tears that had run down her cheeks and drop onto her shoulders, that she was in fact crying.  
  
Kikyo arched an eyebrow, staring at the weeping woman, wondering just how deeply her resolve would really go. Her soft voice did not relent. "He'll become the demon you saw when he fought his brother, the one that started slipping through the façade he wore when he shared your bed, and he will beat you again. He will strike you so hard you will collapse to the floor and not be able to move. You will beg for him to stop, crying, and he will take your sign of weakness as proof of his dominion over you, a dominion even over the spirit he claims to love. And this time, when he grabs you and starts to squeeze, do you think you will be so lucky? If he's merciful his hands will close around your neck and send you to the underworld with your newborn child. But he wants a babe of his own, of his own seed, with your power, and your easily given compliance.  
  
"Inuyasha will rip off your clothes, towering over you like the master he forced you to call him when he showed you off to his friends, even letting them hurt you and grope you like a mangy cur. You'll beg and cry, but it will do no good, and then the bastard will bite you again, proving his dominion as he lets your life force drip out of you like he did to me, leaking out all your power so that you can do nothing when he slams your wrists above your head with one hand, letting the other hand seek what he wants, touching you and toying with you until your body submits and he can easily enter you, not wanting to hurt that region of you too much so that it will open easily for him whenever he looks at you the right way."  
  
Pained eyes stared ahead. Remembering how wonderful it felt when he lay with her. Remembering the passion and lust she felt at the sight of him. Remembering the pain that shot through her like an arrow when he pierced her and broke her wrist. Remembering how he stood aside as his shipmates gathered round. Remembered it all... From a different light. How weak she had felt after his first bite, how he 'apologized' for the bite thinking it only meant dominion, how he had clamped her hands over her head, and again that painful crush of the wrist.  
  
He wouldn't hurt me, Kagome wanted to spit at the woman and claw her eyes out for her mangy lies.  
  
But he has. The voice reminded.  
  
Not on purpose! Kagome wailed.  
  
How do you know? Just because he said? And next time, when he throws you against the wall, with enough force to cause another crack to run through the ceiling of your kitchen only this time your head will bang against the wall, but it of course, won't be on purpose, no never, who would want to damage the goods? What then? Will it be alright? Is this the love you dreamt of?  
  
He loves me, I remember his looks... His words... How warm, the way his heart beat, he couldn't...  
  
Do you remember the animal he was when facing off with his brother?  
  
Yes.  
  
Then why go by the cover of the book? It's obviously a misleading one.  
  
"Stop..." Kagome managed to beg at last, both to the voice and Kikyo.  
  
She clicked her tongue, only her anger left, and her soothing voice haunting in the still room. "How many times have you been weak enough to have gotten caught in that position? One, when you were caught. Two, with Sesshomaru. Three, when you tried to retaliate and he refused to let you by proving he could control your sex. When he wants to hear you scream, do you think that you can escape from him, even though you never have? 'You know you want this, so just say it'. But you didn't want it, did you? 'You ruined it all.' That's what you told him, shouted at him as he held you to the bed, pumping away at you, heedless of your own pleasures and only of his much he wanted you two want him.  
  
"Hasn't he said that to you? 'Say my name'. He likes knowing that he's the one that makes you moan, that he's the one who holds your pathetic life in your hands. Yes, for a moment you were smart enough to realize that names held power, and that by moaning his as he itemized you, you were encouraging him, willing to give into the demands of his body because you needed filling, denied that sexual power that any priestess is given. Yet you opened a flood gate, and now you have to close it."  
  
"Save the life of your child. Save yourself from dying at the hands of the man you called 'master', of the man who relishes the power to snap your wrists."  
  
Kagome felt weak. Her power drained. Her will power deceased. Her heart broken. Kagome's eyes averted away but seemed drawn back to the haunting woman.  
  
Her baby, she had a life in her... She had to protect it. That was a Priestess's job. To protect life. She had to protect the baby. She had to. Even if she was a ruined Priestess, broken by the wanton nature of humans, giving into temptations of the flesh and enjoying them. Sleeping with a demon. Marrying one. Kagome whined and bit her lower lip. She had to free herself, protect herself and the baby. "How?" she asked at last, seeing the Priestess above her shine bright, like a guiding light. "How do I escape him?"  
  
Kikyo finally smiled, and glanced at Naraku before she knew what she had to do. "Go to Sesshomaru, my little Kagome. Do not tell him that you bear his child in your flesh. No, simply tell him that you now have a common enemy. Tell him you want to see your husband dead. Sesshomaru will no longer see you as an enemy, but as an enemy to his nemesis, his half brother, making you an ally. And a welcome ally at that! Prove to him that you are not as weak as you think. Leave him! Flee!"  
  
She reached out and gently began to brush Kagome's head, acting like a big sister to the disheartened Priestess. "Oh, he will try to take you back. He will apologize. He will cry, and beg, and mean none of it. And then you will torture him in the same that he tortured him. Hurt him for every time that he hurt you. Make him bleed."  
  
Each word was rigid with determination, and Kikyo longed that it would be her mouth that would smile at Inuyasha's demise, her eyes that would see his blood stain the floor, her ears that would hear him weep. But it was Kagome's fate to kill him, and hers to help push them for it, to be the free shoulder Kagome could cry on before she took up arms and slaughtered the other half of her soul.  
  
That was enough to shift Kagome's determination. "But," Kagome began in a soft whisper, her eyes looking up at her woefully. To leave him? Yes, now, as soon as possible. To look for refuge with the true father of her babe? Perhaps. He would raise the demon lord and not kill him. But to kill Inuyasha? For all of the pain he caused her and would, she still could not bring herself to do it. To wish for his death? Neither.  
  
Feeling the shift in the power cocoon surrounding her, Naraku's eyes left the scene and turned to Kanna.  
  
Kanna, wordlessly stepped over to Kagome and kneeled down beside her, opposite of Kikyo. Holding her mirror up for view. "Look and remember." The girl said in a hauntingly crystal clear, pure, particularly young, voice. When the soft murmur dulled, the images began to appear and Kagome was transfixed. Watching with horror as her wrist broke easily in his hand, how he snarled and yelled at her, seeing how he bit into her from a different angle, seeing how he lapped up the blood, seeing his demon aura pound- Why hadn't she felt it when he bit?- Kagome saw, all the pain he had caused her and then finally saw as he plunged in and caused her to scream in pain, the after thought to that being the blood left covering the sheets.  
  
Still, Kagome feeling all this pain could not wish him anything more then distance. Never seeing him again. She would give the babe to the brother, she would run and hide herself away, leave everything never to return to him, but to wish him dead? "I can't," Kagome whispered, her shoulders shaking as she cried harder.  
  
"Not yet you can't," Kikyo agreed, sounding compassionate, while underneath she was a mixture of frustration and eagerness at the prospect of being able to finish off Inuyasha himself. "But one day this duty will befall upon you, Kagome. You will be able to complete your destiny one day, when he stands in front of you and threatens you with Kaede, saying that if he could not have a child of power born to him by a fully educated Priestess, than an adept would make do. Or should you wake up one night when your babe screams and Inuyasha is leaning over their crib, then you can find the power to draw your bow. A threat like him cannot live, or he will take all his anger and sexual frustrations that his precious pet can no longer take out on everyone you care of."  
  
She wanted to crawl away and die. She wanted to hide and hum, never to hear these words. "He wouldn't... I'll hide... The babe will be his brother's.. I..." Kagome felt a sudden pain in her abdomen and she doubled over, flexing into a human knot on the floor.  
  
Naraku stood then, his cold eyes narrowed and focused. "Enough." He said simply and turned to one of the lesser goblin like demons, motioning them to collected the shattered form. "Take her away," Naraku ordered and turned to Kikyo. "The spell wore her out, she cannot stand more or her body will begin fighting back. Let her rest for now, the seeds were sewn, give them time to take root," he said, the thin line of his mouth, tipping up a bit, in a dry smile. "By tomorrow she will be hungry for his blood. You do have patience, until tomorrow, don't you?"  
  
Kanna stepped back, her head bowed. Snow white bangs and wisps of hair falling over her shoulders, hiding her face as the mirror dimmed out to a regular reflective surface.  
  
"I've waited for years. Another day will be nothing." Once again Kikyo tried to draw Naraku's attention to her, eager for another kind word or a touch. She sank by him, again putting her chin on his leg, her brown eyes eager. "Did I do good? Tell me I played her expertly, my King. What can I do now to serve you, your Majesty?" Kikyo slowly began to smile. "Or is it that you who know must act in your grand plan? Are you going to visit her tonight, my lord?"  
  
Naraku's hand idly went to Kikyo's head, stroking her hair like a master would stroke his dog. "Yes," Naraku said darkly, watching a demon carry the unconscious priestess away. "There are many evils to me. Tonight, she will meet one of them." 


	7. Things That Go Bump In The Night

**AN:** I promised an update and here it is! We got some really great and angry reviews for the previous chapter... ::grins:: Great! I'm happy you all liked! Well, maybe 'liked' isn't the right word... But hey, we all knew Naraku was a cruel bastard... We just fined that point out a bit.  
  
Thank you to all of those who reviewed, please keep on reviewing! We love your feed back! And Inuyasha rules. Shame we don't own him... Yes, that was a disclaimer in disguise.  
  
Once again, thank you for reviewing, keep doing so and enjoy the story! Ja ne! Except another update – soon!

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Like the city Inuyasha had stormed with his pirate companions, the castle was dark and quiet, but that was not because of night or slumber. Death had settled on the castle, death to any who dared speak a word of truth behind the walls, letting lies and shadows fester and create a plague of wickedness that only served to feed the King who sat on a throne not his own, and spread fear among those he commanded.  
  
Inuyasha could smell her. He could smell her from far away, a beacon of truth in the dingy city. He raced down the stairs to the dungeon. Unlike the dark cellar where Sango was kept, this one was made for people of higher birth. The doors were not iron bars, but solid wood doors. The windows were barred, while Sango had no window. And the furnishings were lavishing. It was like a scene from a morbid play, where the lovers consummated their marriage amid death and decay. Inuyasha sniffed out the keys and unlocked the door to Kagome's cell. He tossed the keys on the ground in the cage, and shut the door before he rushed over and knelt by the side of his wife.  
  
"Kagome?" He leaned over her curled form, held safely in the bed by soft sheets that gave no heat to the cold prison, his snow white hair turning bright gold in the light of the setting sun, outshone by the protective fierceness of his eyes. "Kagome?"  
  
Her eyes fluttering open, Kagome forgot about the past day and wondered where she was. Why Inuyasha was waking her up like this and not with his usual tickles, sleepy kisses or sweet caresses. But then it all crashed on her like a wave hitting the shore, her brown eyes widened frighteningly huge. "I-Inuyasha?" Kagome gasped, like an animal caught in the path of a predator not knowing what to do for a moment and freezing in place, just to inch back a moment too late.  
  
He smiled, but it was not the usual smile he wore with Kagome. It seemed more like a snarl, in the closing light of day. His fangs really did earn that title, now. He watched her freeze, and leaned over her further. "So, you're awake. When they kidnapped you, I thought that I had lost you." Inuyasha's voice implied laughter at some joke she couldn't possible hope to understand. Leaning his head down, he nuzzled her neck, lapping his tongue over the spot where he had bit her as if he could taste the blood afresh. It swathed her jaw line, and he gave a pleased shudder. "Have I ever told you how good your fear tastes?"  
  
Kagome was already forgetting herself when he was leaning over, when he passed his tongue over her wound, the way he did often... Her eyes had even closed, but then when he spoke of her fear, they snapped open with a start. "No..." Kagome whispered and began fighting wildly, her hands smacking at him as she scurried away until she practically fell off of the bed putting it between them. "Wh... How could you... Stay away!"  
  
"Stay away?" he repeated, letting the anger surge out of him. He flexed his claws and dashed over bed, seizing Kagome by her shoulders and shoving her back against the bed. He struck her cheek harshly. "I show you kindness, and now that I come to rescue you and only want to touch you in return for saving you, you tell me to stay way! Fuck, Kagome! I'm your husband! You should respect me! When I kiss you, when I touch you, you are supposed to be compliant!" Holding her down on the bed by her neck, one of his hands pulled at her shirt until her flesh was exposed to the cooling air. He ran his hands over her skin, not the least bit hesitant to use his claws. "Is that understood?"  
  
"NO!" Kagome screamed the second her stomach was exposed.  
  
She had to protect the child.  
  
She had damned herself, but she wouldn't condemn a baby.  
  
"You're not my husband!" Kagome screamed, struggling against him. Her legs kicking while her hands beat on him. "You've shown me more pain than kindness! Inuyasha! You swore you love me! If you do get off of me!" Kagome screamed when she felt blood run from when his claws passed over her ribs. Feeling a rush around her skirts, Kagome's eyes flared up with fright and she began screaming like a hissing cat.  
  
"Get off of me!! Inuyasha!! Inuyasha!!" Kagome shouted pulling at his hair, scratching at his ears. Fighting him wherever she could. Feeling him force a knee between her legs, Kagome felt a tie to her heart break and she looked up at him with a new coldness. A new uncaring feel settled over her as she sank into a pool like a pebble. "You will not touch me, Inuyasha," Kagome whispered, her eyes drifting shut.  
  
When they reopened they were a dark shade of brown, almost mournful. "Ever again," she warned and blasted him away as she threw up a shield of purifying power around her. Sitting up, Kagome ignored the burning at her sides and rearranged her clothes hurriedly. "Stay away," she begged, not believing this was the same man she loved... had married... had created a life... No. It wasn't him. Could never be him. It was the other. Any other would be better then him.  
  
"Fuck, Kagome," he repeated. He laughed at her as he picked himself off the wall, staring at her shield. "Do you think you can keep that up forever?" His eyes narrowed. "Eventually you'll tire, and then I'll teach you what it means to be a wife. Then I'll teach you respect. When your husband comes to you, you're not supposed to tell him to 'stay away'. You welcome him. I see that you've forgotten that. I'll make you remember, Kagome."  
  
Kagome shook her head, getting off of the bed and noticing, for the first time, her bow and arrows neatly left for her on a chair. Looking around the room, she didn't recognize it. But she meant to leave it all the same. Sporting the quiver sideways over her back, Kagome picked her bow up in her left hand. Her right hurt too much, the slashes at her side making her whole right side ache. "Why did you change?" Kagome whispered, remembering how soft and gentle he was... A flash invaded her memories as he pounded down upon her, demanding of her to take her words back, spitting that he hated her. Or was it that she hated him?  
  
Kagome lost her balance and stepped back, her hand going up to touch her forehead, as though that could offer her a much-needed anchor. Shaking her head, Kagome refocused her gaze on him. "I divorce you, Inuyasha. You won't touch me again," she warned, still keeping the shield up. "Leave me be. You're home. Get away from me. I beg," Kagome whispered, not ready yet to really fight him, but slowly it was building up within her, the will to fight him back and physically wound him.  
  
"You won't teach me anything," Kagome said, feeling like she had just stepped out of her body and stared at the shell that just seemed like her. Pulling an arrow out of the quiver she strung it and let it fly, aimed for his shoulder. "I will teach you the meaning of hurting a woman. You won't hurt me, ever again. Inuyasha," Kagome threatened, her eyes dashing towards the door.  
  
He let her arrow pierce his shoulder, heedless to the pain but howling all the same. He stepped forward again, and he was shot again. Inuyasha clutched his shoulder, his golden eyes burning ferociously. "You can't divorce me. I'll never be gone until that mark is off your neck! You're in me, Kagome, and I am in you, in so many more ways than one!" He stumbled forward, knowing that Kagome could not hurt him if she let fly another arrow. "Run, Kagome. Run!" he snarled. "When I'll find you, I won't give you the chance to fire another shot."  
  
Kagome didn't need to be told twice. She ran out of that room like a rabbit away from a wolf. Hopefully there wouldn't be another time, but if there was... Kagome ran around a corner and wiped her eyes. She wouldn't shoot at his shoulder. Not this time.  
  
His taunting voice echoed in the hallway. Sango could hear it from her cell. Why was he yelling at Kagome to run? "Inuyasha?"  
  
"Meow."  
  
"Inuyasha doesn't meow." She looked down in her new cell, and fount the demon cat winding around her feet. This time Sango wasn't chained to the cell wall (having not given Kagura or any of her other demon "baby-sitters" the chance to get close enough to undue the manacles still hanging off her wrists and ankles). Sango scooped the cat up, receiving a lick on her cheek in greeting. Her brown eyes were warm as she placed the cat on her shoulder. "If Inuyasha's here, then that must mean Miroku is too. I guess it's time. Are you ready?"  
  
The demon cat nodded, her tails swishing like a cat about to pounce on a mouse. There was no guard, luckily. Sango supposed that after her initial break out, they had assumed that she would not try it again, her packs gone and her hope dashed by Kagura's beating. But they had not caught the feline, nor had they found the hair brush that housed her only weapon. Sango thanked the cat again for being smart enough for hiding the hairbrush, and then lopped the lock off, walking right outside.  
  
And seeing Kagome. Sango waved, taking off, not quite sure if she was more worried or happy at seeing her friend. "Kagome! I should have known you'd come too!"  
  
Kagome stopped, for a moment a brief smile passed her worn out face. "You're safe. I'm glad," Kagome whispered and stood still leaning against the wall, Kagome allowed herself the indulgence of breathing to catch her breath. "Miroku was worried..." Kagome gulped, her eyes shutting tight at the thought if Inuyasha.  
  
Snorting, she was still touched. "I'm sure he was. Probably didn't know what to do with himself." But her real feelings showed through when her look softened. "They didn't hurt him, did they? They didn't say anything about hurting him, but they didn't make it explicitly clear if he was safe or not. And do you know where I can find myself a weapon? I've got a lot of bodies to carve up in punishment for kidnapping me, those bastards...." She cracked her knuckles before noticing the swelling of Kagome's cheek. In fact, Kagome didn't look good at all. "Kagome? Is something the matter?"  
  
Kagome rubbed her forehead where Kikyo and Naraku had tried to rub something. She ignored how warm it was and looked away from Sango. "He appeared to you that way too," Kagome whispered, her hand holding her aching stomach as she pushed away from the wall and began taking footsteps in the way opposite from which she came. "I can't face him like this," Kagome breathed, feeling the world swing again and wanting to cry for her friend. At least she was healthy. At least that, if nothing else.  
  
Arching an eyebrow, Sango let the cat hop off her shoulder so she could try and slip herself under Kagome's arm. She seemed out of it, and dizzy, clutching her head and her stomach like that. Sango clucked her tongue worriedly. "Come on, Kagome. We'll go lie low and let the guys do the fighting for a bit, and then Inuyasha can carry you back home, and I'll be there to help fix whatever it is that's wrong, okay? I just want a really long bath first..."  
  
Kagome jumped back from Sango and shook her head. "Don't mention him around me!" Kagome hissed venomously, looking around frantically. Slowly, Kagome's brown eyes settled again on Sango. "I'm not going back with you. He's not carrying me anywhere. I'll..." Kagome blinked then and stared. Really out of it and just now gaining her wits. "Sango!? What are YOU doing here??" Kagome asked and then looked around again. "Where is here?"  
  
"Um... I was captured, and I broke lose and how the hell am I supposed to know?" She stared at her friend appraisingly, wondering why Kagome had jumped at her and was acting snappy. She was thinking of feeling Kagome's forehead, but was actually afraid that she would bite off her hand if she got close to her. "I mean, I just spend who knows how many hours in a fucking cell. I don't even know what time it is. All I know is there's a really bitchy girl who can control the winds, and another one who doesn't talk. Either way, whether you and... and him don't want to be around each other right now, it's kind of important we get the fuck outta this castle before Kagura decides to show up, okay?" she asked, her voice growing softer at the end as she stared at Kagome, still trying to figure out what was wrong.  
  
Kagome nodded. "Not that way. That's the wrong way," Kagome said trying to clear through the mutter of her brain. She instead stared down the opposite direction of the hall. "Down that way must be it," Kagome whispered and felt a tremor go through her. If they met Inuyasha... Kagome closed her eyes. She still loved him, but she'd kill him. She had to.  
  
"Come on," Kagome let out tightly backing up from the wall and proceeding down the hall. "We have to move quickly before the demons show up. By the way, congratulations on the baby attempts- Miroku couldn't help but tell, and your new found pet." Kagome said glancing over her shoulder warmly at the two tailed kitten, who was just **SO CUTE**! But when Kagome saw the cat's ears, they reminded her of Inuyasha's. How they always moved when she talked, how they flattened back when she yelled at him, the way their hairs stood on end when she raked her finger tips over their base... Kagome didn't know how much more she would be able to take.  
  
Sango let herself be dragged along, though she still couldn't help but wish for a weapon, any weapon! She thought about what Kagome had said, her eyes staring at the hand mark on her cheek. There was blood seeping through the chest of her white shirt. She pulled the other girl to her stop, her eyes suddenly as protective as a mother bear's. "Wait a minute! Kagome... are you saying that Inuyasha did this to you? Yasha?" she repeated, using Miroku's name for the demon and hardly believing it. But her mind was pulling her back to the ship....  
  
And so was the wind. Her hair lashed at her face. "Shit! Kagura!"  
  
Kagura had a very determined and slightly pissed look upon her. "I thought we had a womanly trust between us," Kagura commented, slamming her fan shut. Narrowing her heavily shadowed eyes, Kagura noticed the other woman and cocked a thin brow. "You found a friend." She said and sighed, sounding bored. "You really are an annoying chit," Kagura said and lazily held out her arm at a 90 degree angle and dropped her fan open.  
  
Smiling cruelly, Kagura raised both brows at the girls. With one fluid movement, she waved at them, the wind conjuring up behind her rushing past aimed for the girls. 


	8. Kiss me Leave me

**AN:** Well guys... Here's my reason for taking a million years to update. Congratulate me. It took me a long time, but I got a new computer. And it even works! happy smile my old one died and recovering the lost harddisk information was a pain in the royal... Yep.

So after a nice long relaxing afternoon of dipping Inu in Chocolate, I decided "hey, it's all up and running at last - time to update!" So here is an extra fun chapter (NC-17 not recommended for those who are underage) and some heartbreaking developments.

Hope you enjoy this chapter, the next update will be soon I promise! Please remember to review! We need your feedback!

Arigato to all those who reviewed so far, you will all recieve your holiday gift wrapped Inus and Yasha's in the mail :)

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Miroku leapt out from around the corner right in front of the girls and held out his palm, Buddha beads aside, he released his wind funnel sucking everything before him in, including Kagura's winds before they hit the girls. By the look of it, Kagura herself would fly in. Holding his hand at the wrist to steady it, Miroku gritted his teeth, his eyes burning a deadly jade. Looking over his shoulders, he saw both women, after the second of pure relief, he yelled at them to run and get back.

Kagura frowned. "Damn wind funnel..." Kagura hissed trying to control his winds but to no avail. "One who runs, lives to fight another day." Kagura conjured a tornado aimed for him, while she used the opportunity of the clash of the winds to run.

If Miroku was here, it meant Inuyasha had to be close. They always fought together and if Miroku was here it meant Sango was safe. Miroku was better then Inuyasha, he'd never hurt Sango. He loved her. He never broke her wrist, caused her pain, ignored her pleas... Running along Sango, Kagome glanced at her friend and stopped. "I'm going now. Stick to Miroku, he'll protect you," Kagome whispered hurriedly then ran down a different hall from Sango, using an arrow to shoot at the floor right before Sango, so that she wouldn't think of following.

Kagome had to get away from them all. She had to go somewhere safe, where he wouldn't find her. Oddly enough, the only person she could figure to go to was Sesshomaru, the same man who gave her nightmares. "I wish I had never met him."

Sango backed up when the arrow struck the floor, but arms steadied her. She ignored them a moment, wounded that Kagome hadn't given her an answer and that Kagome had said that Miroku would protect her. Protect her from what? From Inuyasha? Is that what Kagome had meant? But she couldn't ignore the feel of Miroku's hands on her arms for very long. She turned back around, and stared up at him with her blood already beginning to burn now that she saw he was alive.

Hey, his eyes were glowing green, but he was still alive. "Miroku...." She grabbed him and brought his lips down to her own, kissing him fiercely.

Miroku was going to urge her on ahead, he was going to check her out, make sure it was really her, but he forgot all those when she kissed him. Only Sango could kiss like that. Groaning into her mouth, he collected her close to him and crushed her frame against his. "Sango..." Miroku whispered into her mouth, moving her back against the wall. His hands on either side of her against the wall, Miroku pulled away and stared at her.

His eyes ravished her. As though she was the only creature capable of calming the raging beast inside of him, his eyes slowly ebbed, stopped glowing and returned to their natural blue. He looked human. The emotion showing in his eyes put into words all he could not. He sought out her mouth again, this time for simple reassurance that he had her back. He had sworn he would've torn this world apart had she never been returned to him or hurt, and he would've. But now she was with him, and he calmed.

Hands lowering to her hips, Miroku leaned his forehead against hers, breathing in her scent, unbathed as it was, but then again with all the running he had been doing, he doubted he smelled that great either. "Are you alright? What happened? Did they hurt you?" he demanded at once and then saw the shackles on her. His eyes slowly beginning to blaze again, Miroku closed his hands over the shackles about her wrists, pulling back there were Buddha runes upon them and then their locks burst, causing them to fall to the floor. Crouching down before her, Miroku pulled a wire out of his pouch and worked the locks there, ripping them off of her, unwinding the chains that came along with them. His Sango was strong, if she managed to move around with those. His Sango, Miroku stood up and glared at the marks on her wrists. Backing away, he pulled out of the pouch as his side a small bottle of salve and took her hand in his and carefully began applying the medicine.

"This will help." Miroku promised, feeling the demon rearing up in him again at the sign of the burn marks upon his beloved's body. Finishing tending to her wrists, Miroku fell to his knees and began applying the ointment to her ankles and legs, where he could see the marks of the chains. "Where does it hurt, Sango?" Miroku asked softly, his first priority now to tend to his beloved wife.

Disregarding all the things she could have said, Sango simply let herself enjoy his ministrations, feeling tears in her eyes as she stared down at him. Her demon monk, her precious husband who had crossed worlds to come and save her and now sat on his knees before her. She smiled down at him, still breathless at the speed with which he had kissed her back, and the passion in his touch. Which had now vanished to be replaced with earnest concern. She hadn't thought she could love him anymore than when he had promised to stay with her, but he was proving her wrong every time he could.

"I'm fine Miroku," she said, slowly kneeling down in front of him so she could see his face. "I got thrown up on a wall by a huge gust of wind, but it doesn't hurt anymore. I didn't even bleed." Her fingers tip traced the features of his face as her eyes searched his body for injuries, easier to do now that he wasn't wearing his robes, she found. Her smile grew, and she laughed softly. "I was saved by a pirate then, was I? Are you okay, Miroku? They didn't hurt you when they took you, did they? I was so worried that they had hurt you, but I couldn't get a straight answer out of them...."

Miroku stared at her for a moment, before shaking his head. "They never caught me," he said and granted her a roguish grin. "They can't take a pirate down that easily." Miroku promised her, his hands still on her skin marveling at how soft she felt. But no matter how soft she felt, he knew how strong she was. The most addictive blend of woman there was, a strong powerful woman who was feminine and delicate at the same time. Placing the salve back in his pouch, Miroku took Sango into his arms and kissed her cheek. Just holding her close, proving to himself she was real, not just a dream.

Leaning her away from him, he stood her up and looked over her. Examining her for any dry bruises. "That damn bitch threw you, didn't she?" Miroku gritted from between clenched teeth. "I should've sucked her into my kazaana," Miroku insisted his hands finally finding a nice place to rest when he finished checking her over. On the true proof that it was his wife and she was well. "No one has a butt quite as magnificent as yours, Sango," Miroku told her, receiving a light slap for his groping.

In return he kissed her solidly. "Are you sure you aren't hurt?" Miroku asked, the concern in his voice true. "You don't always bleed outside if you are wounded, are you sure? Sango, don't play it brave, tell me," he demanded, though his tone sounded almost pleading. Reaching up one hand away from her rear to her cheek he kissed her again. "I was so worried." He whispered and then returned his hand to its favorite place.

"Pervert!" Her slap was even lighter this time, and she leaned against the wall, letting her leg slide up so that her knee hovered at his knee. Sango leaned against the wall, her smile gone in her lips only. Her eyes still carried it proudly. She tried again, her voice less convincing. Her body was fine, but her heart wasn't. It threatened to break down and cry. "Miroku, just kiss me again. Make this dungeon go away. Make me think that I never left your side."

He knew he shouldn't. Oh, he wanted to. Badly. But he knew this wasn't the right time, or place for it, and yet.. Miroku found himself cupping her legs beneath the knees and bringing her up around his waist. His upper half pressing her gently against the wall. Kissing her with all the emotions he had in him, worry, concern, devotion, love, lust, Miroku found himself breathless as his tongue teased her lips apart.

"It won't ever happen again." Miroku swore to her, as he edged her dress up and crushed her to him, holding her tight, needing to feel her. Even though he knew this was real, still unable to get over it. Holding her close to him, Miroku kissed her until he lost track of the kisses. "We'll go back, I'll build you a home to your liking. I'll make us a grand bed, you'll have everything you desire... I'll make up for your time spent here." Miroku swore to her. Kneading the flesh of her legs, Miroku kissed her eyes. "It's alright to cry," he told her in low tones, "I won't tell anyone," He promised.

Her breath became ragged as he touched her, kissed her. "I'm not going to cry," she told him, even as she felt the tears run down her cheeks. Damn it! Why was she crying! All Sango knew was that she had never been so glad to see Miroku before. Her lips found his again and she clung to him, exploring his mouth until she was satisfied that her tears had stopped and she could speak again in her jarred voice. But what else could be said that hadn't already been said? "Miroku... I missed you. Only apart for a day, but, I missed you so much..."

Her hands fumbled for his belt. Her breath returned, if only for a brief moment. "But not for this Miroku. I missed you like I missed a part of myself. I didn't have your face to wake up to, or your hands to swat away, or your laughter to pass the time.... Yes, damn it, I even missed those lecherous hands of yours!" She finally managed to get the accursed belt off of his waist, and kissed him gently, her mouth moving from his to his chin and neck, feeling the heat, the pulse, and the smell that could only belong to her husband. Her wedding ring felt cold against her hot skin as she let his rattail roam between her fingers. "I missed you."

Miroku's breath hardly came to him. "You shouldn't be..." He never really got to finish that sentence because the belt was off by the time he at all managed to form it into words and utter it. Groaning, Miroku rolled his eyes back and kissed her possessively. As though that alone could heal everything. "I missed you as well." Miroku whispered, hiking up her skirt more and readjusting her in his arms, to the most comfortable position for her.

Just as he was about to prove to her, how much of a part of him she was... A sudden meow came.

Miroku looked at her shoulder, and for the first time realized there was a small cat demon perched there, watching him curiously. The glance down at where his pants were held up a minute ago, didn't quite help either. Miroku's laughter was genuine though, and when he turned to look at Sango, there was no memory of the demon within, just a man completely in love with his wife.

"I think my worry might've out done my missing... Or perhaps they fueled each other. Whatever the case, I was willing to pass heaven and hell, to get to you and be with you," Miroku said clearing his throat. "I'd like to show you also just how serious about the subject I am, however... A kitty crowd, I can not get use to." Miroku admitted through gritted teeth. The timing was less then perfect, and if Sango kept breathing the way she was, causing his very heart to beat...

Miroku once again groaned deep in his throat, working his way into her shirt teasing her as much as he dared, pulling away before he pushed her over the edge. His mouth moving back up to her lips. "Send her off to catch a mouse." Miroku murmured to her in the back of his throat, shifting her in his arms to free one hand and delight her as they waited for the audience to take a time out.

The cat rubbed her head and jumped off, trotting away to go and find a private place to bathe or do some other demon cat business. Sango might have smiled, but her neck was arched back in a moan as she tried not to dig her nails into Miroku's back. 'She can understand you,' Sango thought before a wave of pleasure pulsed over her body and the thought disappeared. Miroku might just have to get used to a feline audience. Sango rather liked the demon kitten.

She knew the cat as gone when his hand slipped further into her and her knees began to feel weak. "Okay," Sango agreed. "I think you missed me more." She shuddered with pleasure as he eagerly repeated the action and a tremor ran up her back, inciting her to moan his name and ask for more in between telling Miroku that she loved him.

Miroku closed his eyes and leaned against her, pinning her against the wall. "I was so worried... Sango... If anything were to have happened to you..." Miroku didn't dare finish that sentence. He couldn't. Swallowing harshly, he caused her to moan again. He was a man desperately in love, and insane with the need to ease her torment now, to erase all that had happened. He had to make it up to her. Moving his fingers away, Miroku turned his attention back to her chest. "If they harmed you... I would've killed them all, Sango. All of them." Miroku swore, and added to himself that he still would, just because she was fairly well, did not mean he forgave the fact that she was kidnapped and held prisoner. Miroku might be a monk, but he could still wash the entire castle with the blood of those responsible. Let them next time put him on trial! Finally, Miroku relied back onto the oldest comforting known to man. "I love you." Miroku gasped out, watching her transfixed as finally he did what his body was begging of him to do, he didn't think he could take anymore of her trembling body and moans without sharing in her pleasure fully.

Sango gasped as she felt him enter her, tightening the grip around his neck, the sound turning into a purr of pleasure as he moved against her. Sango felt like waves were crashing over her, stronger each and every time she and Miroku proved their love for each other. Her poor heart felt like it was going to burst. Sometimes, she thought, sex just wasn't enough to show Miroku how much she really did care for him.

His lips silenced her with a kiss as she felt her body practically go numb, to keep her from crying out his name in the dripping hallways of the dungeon. She moaned it into his mouth, muffled as his tongue ran over the roof of her mouth, the sensation almost enough to push her over the edge again as his grip on her tightened and he matched her again, the final wave of pleasure bearing down on them as they ended together.

Her kisses slowly ebbed in their passion, but never their warmth as their bodies calmed, their hearts returning to beat in a normal pattern. Sango sucked on his bottom lip playfully, fixing the shoulders of his shirt for him, amazed that he been able to do that standing. Oh her back was going to be sore later on! "So... did I miss anything spectacular when I was away, Miroku?" she teased, her lips still darting here and there at his skin and her chest still rapid as her breathing was the last thing to return to normal.

Miroku really didn't feel like sharing gossip right now. But then again, what he wanted to do right now was hard to do since they were in a dungeon hallway. "One day, we are going to have to do this on a normal bed," Miroku concluded. "With a door," he muttered when a questioning meow came from around the corner.

Smiling at her, Miroku regretfully left the place he most wanted to be right now, inside her. Gently and carefully bringing her legs down, Miroku stepped back and rearranged his clothing and stared at his buckle. "How did you undo it that I can't redo it?" Miroku muttered, struggling with the belt and winking at the kitten who came back.

"New things? Well, I can only think of one. Kagome is pregnant." Miroku said, his grin less then holy. "Apparently Yasha wasn't shooting duds." He joked and turned serious. "I've learned something from her short experience though, we need to plant a lemon tree for when you get nauseous. And buy a barf bucket."

She had shared a wall with them. She knew how things were when they really got going, but still... "Kagome's pregnant?!"

* * *

Inuyasha could smell her. He could smell Miroku and Sango too, but they were unimportant. Kagome was the one who was important. Kikyo's scent drifted by him once or twice, but he willed himself to ignore it. He could find out, learn, about that later on, after he was certain that Kagome was safe. And right now, he wasn't certain she was safe. He could smell her tears, and each one made his heart shake as if it had been cut. Had he been there, to protect her like he had promised, then she wouldn't have gotten hurt.

Every fiber of his being feeling like his senses were set on ultra high, he followed, and found her heading back outside. The castle melted into forest, and he barely noticed, consumed with the need to find Kagome, to hold her in his arms and apologize, to make sure she wasn't hurt. The wounds of his wounded flesh scratched and itched as he ran. His ears twitched as he grew close enough to hear her. She sounded like she was running for her life. Pouring on his speed, he felt his joy at seeing her again emerge as her name, gleefully given life by Inuyasha's lips. He slid beside her, his face a happy smile and his eyes radiant. "Kagome, where are you running off to?"

Kagome whirled on her heels, and with uncanny speed strung her bow, the arrow head glistening with unused power. She aimed for his chest this time, instead of his shoulder as she had times before. "Stay away from me!" Kagome yelled, her finger tips trembling over the arrow. "Why do you always come!? Don't you realize that I don't want you? I don't want to see you! I divorce you Inuyasha!" Kagome screamed, her panic building in her, though she tried to calm it. With all of her power, Kagome tried to settle her outside facade. "Stay away from me Inuyasha, or I swear I will shoot!" Kagome yelled, her voice taking on a pleading note, even as she braced her feet farther apart for a better fighting stance.

Needless to say, Inuyasha was shocked. He managed to keep his jaw from dropping, but he couldn't stop the confusion that swamped his brain, or the feeling of need he had in his hands to take his wife into his arms and tell her that everything was going to be okay. Even if it was a lie, a bigger lie than any of the ones he had ever told her. Her words hurt him more than that her arrowheads ever could.

"Divorce me? But why, Kagome?" He gulped, shaking away thoughts of hearing her bones snap. His white ears twitched as he thought about all the times he had failed her: fighting Sesshomaru when he had promised her he wouldn't, forgetting to tell her he turned human, letting Jakotsu hurt her or Miroku grope her. Inuyasha knew he was a shitty husband, but he was trying! Besides, it had only been a month. It took some getting used to! His heart seemed to sigh as he tried to come up with something to say. "Kagome...."

"Don't!... Just... Don't say my name, Inuyasha," Kagome said, her stance softening a bit as pain swarmed through her senses. "This is the last time I will say yours," Kagome promised him and stepped back, away from him. "How can you stand there and... You're one screwed up puppy, you know that?!" Kagome shouted, her whole body trembling. "Why!? Because you hurt me! You'll kill me! You'll kill the babe... What is it? My fear doesn't turn you on now?" Kagome spat at him, feeling as though her lungs were crushing and trying to stop the burning she felt as she attempted to breathe. "You like pain, well I am not going to let you cause me any more!" Kagome told him and drew her arrow back even more, showing her intent to be serious.

"But, I never... Kagome..." Her name was only a whisper. His shoulders slumped, and he looked like a man defeated, even though there had never been a shot fired. The urge to take her into his arms was almost unbearable now, every part of him telling him to just grab her and hold her, to give her a shoulder to cry on and pour his heart out to show her just how much he really did love her. But that would have been stupid. Inuyasha took a tentative step forward. "You're going to have to shoot me, Kagome. You don't belong here. Let me take you back home, give me the chance to apologize for whatever it is I've done. Let me banish these fears, just let me know what you're safe, and then I'll gladly go, if you really want me to."

"Stop lying!" Kagome screamed, her voice sounding shrill with desperation.

Let him take you, he loves you... Look at him, that is not the same person who had clawed your side. He loves you, you're causing him pain. Pain that you don't want to cause him. Hearing her own thoughts, Kagome was so close to the temptation of dropping her bow and falling into his arms. Being embraced by his warmth and protected by his strength.

He's doing it again, whispered the other, darker voice inside her head. He makes you think you'll be safe with him, loved, comforted... Shown bliss, but once he has you where he wants you he'll break your bones again, don't you remember the ache? He'll force himself upon you, making you claim how much you want it when in fact, your mouth still utters 'no'. He'll kill your child. Then he'll do to you what he did to Kikyo, rape and murder her. Not necessarily by that order. Don't be fooled! You've been fooled enough!

"I do belong here... I can't go back. You've ruined me. I don't want to go back with you. I don't want to be around you," Kagome told him, tears coursing down her cheeks. "As long as I'm away from you, Inuyasha. I'll be safe."

So that was how she felt. She had grown disgusted by the rumors of the villagers, and must have let them convince her that their love wasn't natural. He hid the tears in his eyes behind his pure bangs, his fists shaking slightly. "If this is how I knew it would end up, I would have let you kill me when I burst into your house. Or jumped into the portal after my brother. But now that we've come this far... just shoot me, Kagome! Damn it, shoot me! Tell our child that you pulled the string of your bow and slew me by your own hand, because I couldn't live here knowing that I had a little child growing up without a father all because I fucked up. So just put me out of my fucking misery and shoot me!"

Kagome just didn't want to. She couldn't bring herself to kill him. Instead, she lowered her bow and pushed he arrow back into the quiver. "You'll just have to learn to live and deal with all of your mistakes. Raping and killing has a price, I won't shorten your life and thus excuse you from it," Kagome said and placed a protective hand over her stomach. If he knew now... She would still have a chance of getting away before he killed her and her baby.

"What 'our' child? It's not our anything! It's mine! The baby is mine, don't worry yourself with him! He's not even yours!" Kagome yelled, remembering a flash of pain and then Sesshomaru's face. "Your brother was at least honest in his intent," Kagome said and moved her arrow aside showing him her blood stained side, the slashes running down her shirt. "He didn't speak sweetly when doing these things. No, that is a cruel art only you are good at." Kagome spat at him. "I wonder who was more fortunate in their time with you, Kikyo who died under you or me left to live in fear of you."

'Not mine...' Even the demon brought up by being back in the cold world could hide his tears. Inuyasha's senses were bombarded with the memory of smelling her blood as he ran down the corridor, bursting into his bedroom to find Kagome bleeding and naked on the floor, while his half dressed brother tried to pull out Inuyasha's teeth marks from her neck. He had never asked Kagome about what happened that night, simply tried to show her how much he loved her.

But apparently he had been right all along....

'But I never clawed you!' his mind protested in blind rage and burning tears. 'But I told you that I don't care who the father is, because they are still half you. You're the part I care about, Kagome...' His head shot up when he heard Kikyo's name. "What do you mean when Kikyo died under me?" he asked softly, wondering if it was a metaphor or if she was.... If she was something!

"You're sick..." Kagome hissed backing away from him, feeling dizzy again and cursing this land for draining her energy the way it was. She couldn't fight.. What was it? Fatigue? Was that why she couldn't think clearly?

Shaking, Kagome stumbled and fell back onto the ground, clawing away from him, Kagome backed up until she found a tree she could use to help her stand. The tree too sucked off of her energy, but it didn't give green leaves, just livened the bark. Kagome's eyes narrowed as she glared at him, wiping her forehead from where droplets of sweat collected. A fever? Kagome wondered and ignored the thought, as she kept backing away from him.

"You actually want me to go over the details? You sick bastard... Raping her senseless wasn't enough, slitting her throat and raping her...? And you want me to tell you...? Your memories are better then that, rely on them for your knowledge!" Kagome shouted at him, remembering the cold lies he spun to her heart about how she was his first. There was only one virtue taken from between both of them, and child or not... Kagome wished he never had done that. She wished he never pleasured himself in her, or that her body ever enjoyed it... It was all lies. "Leave me and my child alone. You have nothing to do with either of us!" Kagome screamed and began to run.

"But I...." All the sadness was pushed out of his mind as he thought of the stench he had found in the clearing. Kikyo had been the one to kidnap Kagome. Kikyo was the one living in his brother's old castle. Follow that throught another step, and Kikyo was the one who had toyed with his precious Kagome. He had never touched Kikyo, at least, not in the way that Kagome was suggesting.

He let her run off. She had her bow and arrow to protect herself, and Inuyasha wouldn't rest until he found a way to change her back to the Kagome that he had fallen in love with when she stared at him down in the hallway, looking like a warrior of ancient legend. Inuyasha's legs couldn't carry him back to the castle fast enough.

This time, he looked for Kikyo's scent, and found the stench all too easily. He stalked it down the hallways, dodging shadows and other demons until he pinned her stench to a single room, one that seeped of her scent. Surely, this was her room....

He slashed the door down as he had long ago to Kagome's door. His anger controlled him now, held in check by only the hope of returning Kagome to herself. But some dark part of him couldn't help but wonder if that really was Kagome...

"Kikyo!"


	9. A theory of conspiracy!

**AN:** Darlings! We are back with another chapter! Oh, how the plot thickens... Oh, how we love to hate Kikyo... Oh how tragic this can all be! Oh, how I need sleep. Thank you for reading and reviewing, we really love your feedback and hope for more soon!

and drake... if it tastes like lemon.... ::smiles innocently::

Enjoy the next chapter while PoF and myself will be off chocolate dipping an Inu!

* * *

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**"Kikyo!"**

She looked up from the mirror where she was brushing her long black hair, as alive as she had been when Inuyasha had last seen her. And, sadly, just about as warm. Her eyes looked bored and she turned back to the mirror, vaingloriously brushing her hair, her lips pursed. "So, she didn't kill you. That's a pity. She will eventually, I know."

"I couldn't think of a better person to kill me," he growled, coming up behind her and keeping his eyes on the movements of her hands, ignoring the red sheen slowly building in his eyes, or the darker stripes that threatened to grow on his skin. Even his ears seemed sharper.... "But it won't really be her, will it, because you're the one controlling her, somehow!"

Kikyo sighed and put her hairbrush back down, leaning forward as her shirt slipped around her shoulders. That was shoddy for Kikyo. She was usually so prim and proper, always having to look perfect. "Don't worry, Inuyasha. You can reach out and touch it. You always did like to play with my hair. Remember how we used to sit and talk, sometimes even just stare, and you would brush my hair for me...."

He bit his bottom lip, hissing quietly. She smelled alive. She had a voice. His hand itched, and he let himself take a tentative step forward to reach out and let his finger tips brush her hair. Inuyasha jumped back when he touched it. Damn! It felt alive too. His hand had felt the warmth coming off her body! "What sort of _trickery_ is this?"

"Trickery?" she demanded, her anger growing. She turned in her seat to face him, instead of looking at him in a mirror. She went even colder, her eyes narrowing at him. Slowly, she stood, and moved to sit on the plush bed. "It's no trickery that brought me back, Inuyasha! Just my pain, and a slight accident. I could not accept death, because I had been wronged. Wronged by a certain white haired dog demon...."

"My brother," Inuyasha agreed.

"No, you fool! **YOU**!" He appeared as if he had been slapped. She lifted herself from the bed and stood fearlessly in front of him, staring up at Inuyasha in quiet anger, while her voice was thunderous. "What do you take me for, Inuyasha? Do you think I would just roll over and let you kill me? After all that time, laying there, hanging there... how could anybody's soul find rest when they had experienced a death after that? And then I come back to extract my revenge, and find that you gained yourself a bitch! And a child, none the less! What is it about Kagome that let her live, while my body hung like a trophy on the mast?!"

Inuyasha was silent, shocked. He had never known what had happened to her body. No wonder Miroku had been able to guarantee her body was dead! He felt his anger slip into pity for the once dead Priestess, but he could not let go of his rage completely, not when Kagome was accusing him, when both of them, were accusing him of a death which he was finding himself starting to accept. Had he been stronger... His eyebrows drew together, and her glared down at Kikyo, the look in his eyes making her leave his personal space. "I didn't kill you," he slowly snarled.

"Oh yes you did! I can still remember it, you bastard! You whispered that you would let me go even as you stabbed me, laughing at the sound of my blood hitting the ground. You commanded me to be silent when he... touched me. You yelled at me when I obeyed and was silent and you threatened me more when I screamed. Nothing would please you, because you knew you had me! You knew there was no chance of my escape!" She laughed bitterly, tears stinging at her cheeks. "When you undressed me after you had declared me your prisoner, you even took off my clothes without breaking a single stitch, and then folded them up and placed them on your dresser only two feet away from me, just to taunt me!"

"Kikyo, my brother killed you! The only guilt I have in your death is that I couldn't protect you, that I couldn't heal myself and come and rescue you!" He gripped her by her shoulders. "And I'm sorry about your death, but I'm even more saddened by your rebirth! I can do nothing for you, Kikyo. But I can do something for my wife, whom I love. I do love her, Kikyo!"

She wrapped her hands around her neck, her brown eyes filling with warm love that Inuyasha was used to only seeing in Kagome's eyes. "But you loved me, once...."

"Yes," he admitted. "I loved you once, but I was not _in_ love with you. I am in love with Kagome. And right now you're playing a dangerous game with my wife as a pawn. I'm not going to stand for it! Fine, you don't want to believe that it was Sesshomaru that killed you, go ahead, but leave Kagome out of this! Now, what did you do to my Kagome!?"

"Your Kagome now, is it?" she drawled, suddenly shoving her magic into him. He dropped her shoulders and backed off, rubbing at this now throbbing neck. "Possessive bastard... wouldn't you like to know what I did with her? I did nothing except made her realize the truth!"

He stopped rubbing his sounded neck, staring at her, watching for any other sign that she would try using her magic on him. Damn, but that had hurt like a bitch! He rose a curious eyebrow. "Oh? And would truth is that, Kikyo? Somehow I doubt that it's true, if it came from your twisted little mind. Your magic doesn't even have the kick it used to. You shoved your magic to my neck and I barely got burned...."

"Shut up!" she hissed. "I told her exactly what she was afraid of hearing! I told her that the father wasn't you, though that was your fear: she knew that Sesshomaru had _never_ entered her, had you ever talked to her and asked her outright! But no, you had to help things along by doubting the virtue of her body. I told you that you would kill the babe, and why wouldn't you, when you weren't satisfied with it. Oh, I told her many, many things. Most of them would interest you, I'm sure, but you should just spare yourself the pain. Run away like she did! Give her up!" Kikyo giggled. "If you pursue her, she'll kill you to defend the life of your unborn babe!"

Kikyo leaned against him, laughing into his chest. "And I bet you wonder now why I'm not going to kill you. Why I'm going to let you walk out of here with only an itty bitty scratch to show you that I'm back, and screwing with your life until you scream in pain fiercer than I ever did. And until you are as dead as I was once. You have no idea of the pain I am going to cause you, Inuyasha....."

He pushed her off him. So that's what it was. Kikyo's words had wrapped around Kagome's brain, and now she was trapped by them. Maybe Miroku might have some sort of idea as to how to shatter those words. He drew his sword, and saw panic in Kikyo's eyes. Instead, he held the scabbard out and held it upside down, letting a braid of hair fall out from the scabbard, as black as night on the ship he had called home for four years. "I guess that if you're back, I don't that to remember you by. Give it back to me when you drop dead again, Kikyo. No sense mourning for someone who is still alive, after all. I hope that you finally find the truth, Kikyo. But don't come near Kagome or my child again, otherwise I won't hesitate to kill you. At least that way your soul would be correct when it said it had a reason to hate me."

He stormed out off the chamber, and Kikyo stared at him until she heard the door close. Then she scooped up the lock of hair that he had discarded on the floor, her fingers knowing it as well as her eyes. It was hers. Naraku had been wrong. He had kept it, after all. "He.... He...."

* * *

Running down the hall, Miroku not once let go of Sango's hand in his. He even kept glancing back over at her, to make sure she really was well. Rounding a corner, he was not prepared for the sight before him. "Inuyasha?" Miroku asked in disbelief staring at the demon lord before him.

Sango squeezed his hand, as the cat demon meowed a hello from her place beside Sango's ankles, choosing to walk on her own. She suddenly recalled the bruise on Kagome's cheek, and glared at Inuyasha a little softly, not wanting to accuse him of anything but mad all the same, underneath a lot of confusion and the twinkle that refused to leave her eye from being with her husband again. "What did you do to Kagome?"

Inuyasha rolled his eyes and smacked his head. "Oh God! Not you too, Sango! I swear it's got to be a conspiracy theory or something!" he groaned. "I didn't do anything to Kagome! Miroku, there's... some type of spell on Kagome or something. This is completely out of my league!" Then he recalled they were in Naraku's castle, though it had once been his home too. "But it's not safe to talk here...."

Miroku nodded, his mouth a thin grim line. Looking at Sango, he shook his head a bit, a signal for her to leave Inuyasha alone. Though after the slightly scolding look, Miroku raked his eyes over her body and stopped for a moment to allow his eyes to feast on certain areas. They really needed to get out of this castle. When his eyes met hers, he liked the blush touching her cheeks.

Turning back to Inuyasha, Miroku looked around and motioned for Inuyasha to lead. "You obviously know the way better then us," Miroku said, his eyes scanning the walls as though they were demons themselves. "We'll talk later," Miroku said and turned to Sango pulling a knife out of his boot and handing it to her. He doubted she would've figured he had one there earlier. "I knew you'd miss it," he said and followed Inuyasha.

"Is she safe?" Was all Miroku dared ask while still within the castle grounds. And just to amplify their worries a slow growling began to rise from the depths of the castle foundation.

Sango tucked the knife in her own boot, glad for the weapon. Miroku knew her far too well. And, sadly, she wanted him again as much as he did her.

"Get a room you two," he growled, all too aware of their needs for each other. Was this how Miroku had felt when Sango and been kidnapped and he was around himself and Kagome? If that was the case, then Inuyasha had so much more respect for Miroku now! He shrugged as he turned down a hall, leading them back through the secret passage they had used to get in. "I don't know. She was bleeding, but it was tapering off. And she'd been crying. She looked like hell, but there weren't any serious injuries on her. I think the worst was her mind. Kikyo brainwashed her...."

Miroku considered this and looked at Sango. "You had to have seen her to know something was wrong, did she say anything to you?" Miroku asked and when they arrived at the landing leading out to the yard. He could sense Inuyasha's impatience with climbing down the steps. "Go on, leap," he told Inuyasha and scooped Sango up in his arms, bracing his legs as he jumped off as well.

Landing on the ground, Miroku winced only slightly and let Sango down on her own feet. Following Inuyasha now with a set mind and goal. He could see the tension lines on Inuyasha's face and something else, a pain he didn't want to touch. Inuyasha was leaving something out, and as much as Miroku didn't want to pry... "Define brainwashed."

"Define hurt," Sango grumbled with a pointed look at her husband, not missing the wince and wondering from where it came. She scooped the feline demon back up in her arms, smiling as it meowed. Obviously she wasn't planning on leaving their little group any time soon.

Inuyasha shrugged again, and irately let out his captured breath. "How the hell am I supposed to know!?" He calmed after his short outburst and weakly apologized for yelling at his friend. "She thought I was going to kill her... our baby. She thinks our baby's father is my half brother. She wanted to divorce me. According to Kikyo, she's ready to kill me if she sees me again. I can't give you any better explanation than that."

Miroku's face went ashen and he stopped, grabbing Inuyasha's elbow and swerving the man around. "Inuyasha, you aren't making sense... Are you trying to say Kikyo's alive?" he asked remembering how he had picked up her scent earlier. "But why do this? If anything she would be out against Sesshomaru, everyone knows he killed her." Miroku's voice was toneless as he turned away and raked his hand through his hair, his Buddha beads catching some of the hairs on its way.

"But the baby is safe?" Miroku asked, his concern obvious. With a look over at Sango, Miroku imagined himself in Inuyasha's place... And he suddenly understood the streaks down Inuyasha's cheeks. "It's a spell. I've heard of a few. Some can jumble thoughts, others replace memories, comply, force people to do things against their wills... But who ever cast it, Inuyasha, Kagome is a strong priestess with the purist aura I've ever seen. It would've taken someone powerful," Miroku muttered and looked back at the castle they had just left for shelter in the woods instead. "Naraku, would fit the profile," Miroku wagered aloud.

"If she thinks you are going to murder them, and Sesshomaru the father... She would be heading towards the Western Lands." Miroku concluded, and looked down at his pouch. "I have with me some talismans and runes, I only hope they can help. We better hurry," Miroku said, throwing a slicing look at Sango. "Hurt is what we have been going through for the past few days, and what both of our friends are suffering now." Miroku told her, wrapping his arm around her waist and bringing her close. "Define lust." Miroku murmured into her ear, then turned his head back to Inuyasha with a steady look. "We better move quickly, if she doesn't get to Sesshomaru who'll kill her off, then the thirst of these woods for her power will," Miroku said and blinked when the kitten meowed in his face. "So, we have a pet?"

* * *

Kagura stood behind a pillar and listened to them closely. Stepping away from the marble pillar, Kagura pulled a feather out of her hair and cursed. Naraku and his schemes. Throwing the feather into the air, there was a cloud of smoke and Kagura was riding the now giant feather. She glided over the winds towards the Western Lands. There was someone very important there, who would love to know of these turn of events.


	10. Whose baby is this?

AN: Ahhh… We've neglected this story for too long… :bows head in shame: Gomen… Gomen… But now, look! An uber exciting, pace filled, plotting moving long chapter all for your reading pleasure with the promises of more updates to come soon! Been curious about what is going on? How things will go? Now is your chance to run and read the latest chapter! Without, of course, forgetting to review We love your reviews.

So from the PoF and I, we hope you enjoy the latest chapter! Also, as another bonus feature, at end of this chapter you can all get your own mini chocolate dipped Inu! The real one we are keeping for ourselves. Of course. If Takahashi will only let him go for a short time… .

* * *

"I'm not sure if pet is the right word," she laughed when the cat hissed at the idea of being considered a lowly bet. Sango wriggled out of Miroku's grasp and walked over to hug the sulking Inuyasha, who seemed very shocked to be hugged by Sango, but returned the sentiment eagerly. She smiled up at him. "Don't worry. We'll take care of everything. You guys came all the way here to save me, so we're not going to leave until Kagome's herself again."

Sango smiled at him briefly before giving the cat to him. "Here. Pet Kirara. She makes everything feel better." Inuyasha looked slightly repulsed at the idea of petting a feline, but the cat had been neglected for so long she was willing to look past the ears. Sango glared at him. "I said: pet Kirara."

He patted the cat he now held in his arms, rubbing the kitten's ears and surprised when the pet… er, not a pet, started to purr. He smiled briefly, feeling better immediately, until he started thinking if this was how Kagome thought about him and his ears. He kept on petting the cat anyway. "Is there any other way to break the spell?" he asked the monk, thinking wistfully of fairy tales when the kiss of one's true love could fix everything.

Miroku shrugged. "Probably. I never dwelt long on spells. Poltergeists? Sure. But not spells."

Seeing the look in Inuyasha's eyes, Miroku stepped closer to his friend and looked at the demon cat in Inuyasha's arms. "You know she loves you very much. You're an idiot, so you're probably dense to the love in her looks when she glances at you," Miroku said then scratched his chin. "I've been with a lot of women, Inuyasha and sharing a wall with you I know just what you two sounded like. Those are the sounds only a woman in love can make," he said and looked back at Sango. "I've recently found the difference out myself.

"Maybe there are other ways, proving the truth to her, breaking through the spell, making a connection, hell, maybe a kiss. I don't know. But we will find it out once we get her back," Miroku promised. He then arched a brow when he saw Kirara jump off of Inuyasha's arms and onto the ground. Flames momentarily surround her and she turned into a giant cat. "Demon kitty indeed..." Miroku muttered glancing at Sango. "Does she want us to follow her or what?"

Inuyasha stared at the cat and answered before Sango could. "No. She's offering us a ride. She must like you very much, Sango. What did you do that made a cat demon offer us a ride?"

Sango merely smiled. "I only fed her a bit of smoked meat. Kirara's just a very nice cat, aren't you, girl?" she asked, rubbing the cat's long nose and kissing it with a smile. There was something with cats and women that just seemed to make them understand each other.

"I think you might have a contender for my heart, Miroku," she teased as she climbed up on Kirara's back, helping her husband up.

Sitting behind Sango, Miroku looked apologetically at Inuyasha, but he circled his arms around her waist and pulled her close behind him. "I don't like competition," he teased, moving his hands down but stopping, knowing that now wasn't the right time. However, hearing the hitch in her breathing he knew he got his message through to her.

"Kirara will just have to be fed a lot of smoked meat," Miroku added when Inuyasha climbed on. When the cat took off, Miroku turned to Inuyasha, looking over his shoulder. "First sign of Kagome, yell."

He stared at his friend. "I'm going to kill whoever did this to her…"

* * *

The prey was close. He could smell it, fear gripping at her little heart. But at least she was putting up a fight, hiding from him like this. He licked his lips hungrily, already tasting meat and blood when he would sink his teeth into her neck…. The deer heard a twig snap and ran off. Kouga gave no chase, instead turning around and looking at the pups he led behind him, trying to teach them how to hunt.

"What have I told you before? You need to be quiet! Be aware of everything around you: not just your prey! That's how our dinner gets away, and how the killer becomes the stalked, understood?" The guilty pup nodded when the wind shifted direction. It brought with it a familiar scent.

'Inuyasha?' He sniffed again. 'No. Kagome. What the fuck is Kagome doing here?' He looked down at the pups. "Go home. I have work to finish up."

He waited until they had slunk off before he chased down her scent, hearing her not too long later. Was she sniffling? He could smell salt in the air. She was covered with Inuyasha's scent, but that wasn't surprising considering that she had some of his blood running in her veins. There were other scents too. He could smell Miroku's woman on her too, and a scent that had become too familiar in the war-filled days.

Naraku.

What the hell was Kagome doing with Naraku's scent on her?

Slowing down behind her, closer now, he could make out a whole new scent. His surprise was so great that he said it out loud, though it came out as more of an oath rather than a statement of surprise. "What the fuck did Inuyasha do bringing a pregnant woman here and reeking with the scent of the doomed and the dead? I think maybe you fucked him a bit too hard, Kagome!"

Kagome turned around and stared at him hollow eyed. "Probably," Kagome whispered in agreement. How long had she been walking? Kagome wondered, finally allowing her legs to collapse under her as she sat with a loud thud on the ground.

"You can smell my baby?" Kagome asked looking down at her stomach. "Can you smell it's father?" Kagome questioned.

"I can smell it, but I can't smell who the father is," he said, gentle, as he knelt down on one knee, leaning his weight on the other. He stared at her, but did not touch her… though some part of him wanted to. He wanted to pat down her hair and tell her that whatever was wrong would be alright. Something was wrong, that was certain! "No demon has a nose that good. What are you doing all the way out here?"

"Running..." she said, turning her haunted eyes to him. "I want to go running to him, but he hurt me," Kagome said, remembering yesterday's memories very abstractly. She remembered burn marks, but... When Kagome looked down at her wrists she saw none. She remembered being sore, forcing herself to... Kagome shook her head.

"I feel as though a spider has crawled into my skull and spun deadly webs around my mind. Each time I try to slice through a line, like a plague it deepens its hold." Kagome began crying, though her well of tears was dried up. "When I try to fight it hurts... He swore he'd kill my baby," Kagome said grasping onto Kouga's hand with deadly strength. "You were there that night..." Kagome's mind rattled and shook.

Swallowing, Kagome felt like a puppet being pulled by the strings. "I'm going to look for my baby's father... I remember he asked you to lay with me.." Kagome touched her temple and massaged it furiously. "Did you?" Kagome asked moving forward and placing her hand on his bare knee. "I don't remember. You can if you want. He has already... He was very rough though, if you promise not to..." Kagome tried to make sense, but couldn't.

Kouga was confused trying to follow her speech. Was she talking about Inuyasha, or about the time that Sesshomaru had tried to hurt her so that his half brother wouldn't want her anymore? He peeled her hand off his knee and wrapped it around her other hand. "I haven't, and I'm not going to, either, Kagome. You're Inuyasha's mate and…" He stared at her neck. The bite mark wasn't as strong as it should have been. It was half gone, and looked like a pale birthmark now, rather than the sign of her marriage with a demon prince.

"Holy shit…." His eyes switched to her face, and he gently cupped her cheek. She didn't even have any more tears. She must have really hated Inuyasha to have her body actually start rejecting the mark! But still… threatening his wife? Threatening to kill her baby? Hurting her? That just didn't seem like the guy he'd grown up with, calling him 'dog piss' or the like since he had been old enough to talk.

He sighed. "Let me take you back to my den, Kagome. We'll give you some food to fill your stomach. You must be famished coming all this way," he said, even though she still hadn't told him why she was in the demon world in the first place.

Kagome nodded and grabbed fist fulls of his skirt. "Not. Fish… I'll throw up," she explained and took his hand placing it on her stomach. "I can't smell him. Can you feel him?" Kagome asked weakly, then her eyes pleaded into his. "My fear is his turn on." Kagome confided, falling forward wrapping her arms around his shoulders.

"He never really cared. He just took pleasure in the body," she whimpered into his shoulder before crawling onto his lap completely like a little baby and hissing into his ear. "I cannot fight this sickness... These woods eat at me as the spider drills away, my powers are for the child. Otherwise, I'll miscarry." Kagome hoped in what message she tried to get through before diving back into the mad hell she found herself in, with contradicting voices and images she didn't want to see. Seeing one before her now, Kagome turned her eyes away from the blood soaked bed. "I divorced him..." Kagome whispered and fell limply against the wolf demon. "You'll protect me. Right?"

"Of course I will," he sincerely promised. 'Damn, is it just me or does that grass look lighter?' Kouga stroked her hair gently, feeling not quite like himself at all. "Don't worry, Princess. I'll take care of you. You just relax for now, and save your strength for that babe and your brain, to keep those nasty spiders away. I promise: no fish. But Kagome, this doesn't sound like Inuyasha at all. There's no way he'd get off on your fear. Inuyasha doesn't like people being scared of him?" He smiled. "I should know this. I'm his friend, after all, right?"

He stood up, holding her against his chest. "Yup, Princess, you just rest up now, and let me take care of you."

Kagome smiled softly, allowing herself to let her guard down. "He leaned close, and kissed me, he raked his hands over me… And told me he loves the smell of my fear." Kagome confided, then fell in step beside him. "Later, will you take me to Sesshomaru? I've got a child... His."

"What?" Now the whole world was upside down. Inuyasha being aroused by fear and his wife pregnant with the heir of the rightful King?

Oh, this was just going to be one of those days! First a good hunt ruined by a clumsy runt, and now a royal scandal.

He sighed. "I will after you've gotten some rest, Kagome." He scooped her up much as Inuyasha did when he carried her off to bed, and smiled rakishly. "We're going to take forever to get home if you're planning on walking. Hold on tight."

* * *

A crackling fire lit the early morning sky, even though the wolves didn't need it. Kouga checked on the food once more before erecting his back and crossing his arms. "I don't like this, not one bit. This doesn't sound like Inuyasha. I want you all to go and find him. Find him and find out what the fuck is going on. I'll take care of Kagome."

"We could eat her, sir," one wolf demon said. A glare from Kouga said no.

"You feel like eating the woman who claims to be carrying the child of King Sesshomaru? You feel like eating the wife of your prince? Do you have a death wish, or were you just born stupid?" He glanced at Kagome's sleeping body. "Like I said: I'll take care of Inuyasha's wife. I owe both of them that much. Sango could have killed me, she could have killed me on that ship, but they didn't. This will repay them for that kindness." He rubbed his cheek, thinking of when she had thrown the needle at him. "Besides, she has spunk."

His followers didn't move and he snarled at them like the wolf demon he was. "Get going will ya! Go and find him and don't come back until you can answer my questions!"

Kagome's eyes fluttered open just to see dog tails wagging away into the distance. "Is he here?" Kagome whispered, too frightened to move or change her position.

"No," Kouga said after looking over his shoulder. He scooped some of the broth into a bowl and walked over to sit beside her. He offered her the bowl with a face that seemed friendly and serious all at the same time. "Here, Princess. No fish, I promise."

Kagome smiled and sat up, taking the offered soup and drinking it slowly. Sighing with satisfaction, Kagome looked over at him. "This tastes great. I haven't had anything to eat since the morning... of... the day before yesterday. But even that meal didn't help, Inuyasha and I..." Kagome paused and tried to remember. She remembered a warm fuzzy feeling but a vision of him leering over her wickedly, his claws scraping down her sides, and the pain of her wrist breaking broke through those memories, shattering them. "It doesn't matter."

"Thanks, Kagome," he grinned proudly, "I made it myself." Kouga's blue eyes stared at her. "It does matter, Kagome. I still can't believe that this is the same person who nearly died protecting humans. He could've died saving you, and then he goes and starts to hurt you? It just doesn't add up."

"He didn't start after... It was on the ship still," Kagome said weakly, holding out the empty bowl to him for some more soup. "You're a better cook then me," Kagome joked, her head still throbbing. "Master.." Kagome tested out the word she remembered him telling her to call him.

He poured her some more. She could have his share. "He made you call him master?" Kouga surmised. He whistled when he handed the bowl to her. That seemed even less like Inuyasha! "So why in the world do you want to go and see Sesshomaru?"

"Because he is the father of my baby. He'll protect me from his brother. At least, when I give birth he won't snap the baby's neck," Kagome said, her hands shaking. "Something inside of me is telling me to go to him."

"Okay…." He didn't think that sound like Sesshomaru. To fall to the same so-called disgrace that had been the cause of so many family disagreements between Sesshomaru and his father…. He wouldn't stand for it. Inuyasha was the one who would save the child. But Kagome needed a friend more than a devil's advocate right now. "Eat it. You need the food, and so does the baby. Speaking of which, outta curiosity, why do you need magic to keep the baby some miscarrying?"

"This place... It's draining me," Kagome said, her eyes looking down at the ever greener grass beneath her. "The spiders are eating away at me." Kagome said, wishing she could explain better. "My body doesn't want a child of rape." Kagome whispered, dropping the bowl and its contents, allowing it to spill over the stone floor as her hands flew to her stomach, and she felt herself want to vomit.

He wrapped his arm around her and helped her outside and into fresher air in an attempt to help her stomach settle. "Rape, Kagome? Did Inuyasha…" He stopped that question, thankfully. She had said that Sesshomaru was the father. And Sesshomaru had asked him to do it… he gulped. "Kagome, trust me, Sesshomaru wouldn't do that to you."

Kagome stared at him. "If he wouldn't..." Kagome thought about it and remembered how Kikyo had mentioned rightfully so, the way Kagome begged Inuyasha to stop and protested. "Then Inuyasha..."

"Fuck, Inuyasha wouldn't do that either, no matter how lowly you think of him! He's half fucking human and cares too much for people who were like his mother!" He rolled his eyes. "I meant Sesshomaru wouldn't because he's disgusted by humans. Not to mention that at the time it also would have been so totally wrong since you were his brother's mate! Fuck! Inuyasha… I don't know who told you that, Kagome, but they're lying."

"Kikyo," Kagome said, looking at Kouga, to see if the words registered. "Kikyo told me that."

"Um…" Kouga was more than just surprised. His face melted into confusion, but his voice was still gentle, and so much more realistic in that tenderness than Kikyo's had ever been. "Kagome, Kikyo's dead. She died four years ago, on the pirate ship. Sesshomaru fed her to sharks. Trust me, she's dead."

Kagome shook her head at him. Why did they keep saying that? "She's real!" Kagome hissed at him, her nails closing around his wrist biting into his flesh. "Just as real as the little girl with the mirror."

'Little girl with the… oh.' Kouga put his hands on his hips. "Kanna! What the fuck were you doing with Kanna! She's as close to Naraku as… as… well, no body else is that close to Naraku! And talk about heartless…! She's just about as bad as he is! You can't listen to anything that bitch shows you, understand? She manipulates that mirror as easily as Naraku manipulates her!"

Kagome looked up at Kouga, a flutter rushing through her mind. "But..." she whispered remembering the scenes show her. "I remember..." Kagome muttered.

He rolled his eyes. "Yeah, right. You can remember something that happened a month ago when you can't even get a good night's sleep, have morning sickness in the morning, and spend the whole day wandering around the demon world." His sarcasm was cut short as he waved away an annoying thought, trying to be easy going.

"I'm going to go and take a nap. You… get some sleep or something. But no being sick in our den! If you still want to go see Sesshomaru after the other demons show up, then I can take you to him in no time whatsoever, but only if you want to." He glanced at her and grinned. "And if you start feeling lonely at all, Princess, I wouldn't mind an extra body to keep me warm." He chuckled wildly and waved at her over his shoulder. "Sweet dreams!"

Kagome sat there blinking. Another body to keep him warm? Kagome shuddered and brought her knees up close to her chest. If she could, she'd channel energy to heal this fever she had on her mind, but she had to keep the protective shield around her baby up.

"Another body... It's all about the body. No one wants the person inside, just the body." Kagome cried into her knees. "My memories might be wrong, the images I saw might be lies, but he came to me."

Looking back into the den, Kagome wished Kouga a goodnight and went on her way towards Sesshomaru's castle. She knew where it would be. Something was dragging her there. "He's strong enough to stand against Inuyasha."

* * *

Led by the wolf demons, the journey to the den didn't take very long. Kouga heard his pack's triumphant cries and came out of then, rubbing his eyes. Then he realized that Kagome was missing. Cursing like the ex-sailor he was, Kouga shut up when a giant flaming cat almost squashed him. He screeched and heard familiar laughter. Looking around a giant paw, he saw Miroku and Inuyasha were laughing at his outburst.

"I hope both of you get boils where you can't scratch…. Why the fuck are you two riding a giant cat?"

"Be nice to Kirara!" Sango chided. While Kouga didn't like the cat, Kirara seemed to like him well enough, and licked Kouga's face as her travelers climbed off.

Leaping off of the cat, Miroku held his arms out to Sango, grasping her around the waist and bringing her down to the ground. Maybe he held her a little too close and moved slightly too slow. Judging by their howls, Kouga's pack had taken notice to their actions.

"What's wrong Kouga? Cat got your tongue?" Miroku asked, ushering Sango to walk beside him. His hand played over the small of her back. "Your pack had some interesting news for us," Miroku said and left the rest to Kouga, though he did notice Inuyasha smelling the air. "Yasha?"

Kirara changed back to her small form and began to wash herself, trying to get the smell of dog demon out of her pretty coat. Inuyasha took a moment out of smelling the air to glare at the feline. "Oh, bite me. Kouga… ow! Damn it, I wasn't being serious!" He rubbed his ankle as Kirara went back to having a bath. "Kagome was here, I can smell her. She's not too far off…"

Kouga let out a sigh of relief. At least that meant he didn't have to explain to Inuyasha that he lost his woman….

Miroku shifted his feet. "Did she say anything to you?" Miroku asked. He was guessing by the look on Kouga's face that he knew something.

The wolf looked hot under the collar and lowered his eyes. Then he reminded himself he had done nothing wrong. "She thinks the kid is Sesshomaru's. She thinks that you get aroused by her fear. She thinks a hundred different things, and each of them is wrong! She says that Kanna showed her things. I can only guess what the little bitch showed Kagome." He looked up Miroku and Inuyasha questioningly. "Is it true what she says? Is Kikyo back?"

Actually, he only looked to Miroku, as Inuyasha had suddenly vanished. "Where'd he go to?"

Sango groaned. "He's gone after Kagome again." She looked up at her husband. "Should we let him? I mean, it's his choice, but if he keeps on chasing her like this…"


	11. Kagome?

**AN:** I apologize so much for the updates being so few and far between! Sadly, unlike with DA, I can't promise anything soon. Let's just say that Emmie and I really need to work on the scene after this. It's a little… well, I wanted to go in one direction, and she wanted to go in another. She's not online for a_ long_ time after this, but we have a few days together, so we can at least plan out that part! Anyway, I hope you like it. There's only one thing that makes this scene better… and that's the ending… which we _will_ get to eventually! And _those_ are all promises I will keep!

Enjoy everyone!

* * *

**Chapter Eleven: Kagome?**

Inuyasha was quiet as he slunk through the woods. Kagome's scent was stronger even than the trees around him but he could tell that she running low on energy. The grass wasn't as vibrant in her wake, the birds were no longer moving, and there were no new leaves on the trees. The forest still felt cold and dead, echoing Inuyasha's sentiments.

Kikyo was wrong. He felt like shit. Inuyasha just wanted to slink off, to throw himself in the river and never have to worry about any of this again!

No, no scratch that. He wanted to find out whoever had dared _touch_ his wife, rip off their fingers one by one, and torture them in general, until they became such whimpering piles of feces that they would never think about hurting anyone else again, and would be too disfigured to do so even if they wished. And if they ever did hurt anyone else ever again, he was going to castrate them himself, remove any other appendages left on their body, and then get Miroku's advice on how to kill them in the slowest way possible while causing so much pain that in the end they would beg to meet God and their eternal punishment!

Inuyasha could guarantee that God's punishment would be much, much more bearable.

Finally he saw her, leaning against a tree, her hair spilling over her shoulder. She looked as bas as he felt. Inuyasha pushed forward only a little bit more, the underbrush easily moving under him so that their dying leaves didn't make a sound. "Still feeling ill, Kagome?"

Kagome spun around and watched him. Feeling tired Kagome just allowed herself to slide down the trunk of the tree and sigh. "Tired," Kagome replied, looking up at him. Kagome felt frightened and used her energy for her baby. All of the power she had left in her she was using for her baby's protection.

"Kouga said the images in the mirror were wrong," Kagome said then looked down at her torn shirt. She fingered the gauges in her shirt. "How do you explain these claw marks?" Kagome asked him, fatigue defeating her.

"I don't honestly know," he said gently, never thinking of Naraku and his shape shifting abilities. He stepped forward tentatively, his ears lowered as he tried to make himself look non-threatening.

"You don't have to be tired anymore, Kagome. We can go home, now that Sango's free. You can relax, never to worry about the world sucking your magic out of you. And I will leave, and you'll never have to see me again."

Kagome shivered and hugged herself. "That's just it..." Kagome confessed. "A part of me wishes that more then anything. I wish that you never around me, never there to hurt me and give me nightmares… Do you know I use to wake up in a cold sweat from the memories of my wrist breaking?" Kagome asked softly, her voice shuddering.

"But then again, there's another part of me that keeps whispering that I'll die if I never see you again." Kagome wept, doubling over and hugging her stomach. "I need to go to someone who won't kill my baby..."

He rushed forward when he saw her falter, falling to his knees as he steadied her. His breath caught in his throat, and tears stung his eyes as he stared up at her, at his beautiful wife. "I'm never going to forgive myself for hurting you like that, Kagome. Never! The memories are so vivid to me that sometimes in the night I have to wake up and look at your wrist to make sure it was whole. I always had to look at your cheek to make sure my hand print wasn't really there. I look in the mirror and I wonder why you ever fell in love with me because all I can see his a demon who was weak enough to hurt the one person he only ever wanted to be with more than anything, the one person who means more than life or death to him. If there was a way to go back and to avoid hurting you, even if it meant that I had to forget that someone as special as you ever existed, I would! I do it in a heartbeat if it meant that I would never cause you to cry!"

Like a person drowning, Kagome grabbed onto him for support. "The webs are tightening on my mind. Get it out of me," Kagome pleaded before whimpering. "You hurt me. You should never have forced yourself on me. You're too forceful and rough. You just want to hurt me," Kagome whispered, looking into his amber eyes. "You always hurt."

"That's not what you said the other day," he whispered, his hands running through the ends of her hair before he realized what they were doing. "And I don't. God, Kagome! I never want to hurt you! You're my wife for… for Hell's sake. My wife. And more so! You're the better part of me. Hurting you is like hurting everything that I could one day become, and I don't want to hurt that. I don't want to hurt _you_."

Inuyasha took her hand and kissed the back of it before he gently pressed it against his chest so she could feel his heartbeat, as if feeling his words weren't enough but letting her know that the heart warming his skin was real would be enough to break through those cobwebs. The ground was hard under his knees, but he didn't want to get up. He didn't want to look menacing to her.

"I never forced myself on you. Don't you remember, Kagome? I even asked you if I could kiss you. You said that you would be mad at me if I didn't. The first time you went to... to show yourself to me, I wouldn't let you because it didn't feel right, and I'm _glad_ that I waited until you were willing to join me in bed, Kagome. You gave me yourself, and that was more than anybody could have asked for, let alone some half breed like me. And there was the time that you asked me why I wasn't kissing you and when I heard you say that, I knew that I could never love anybody else like I love you. Don't you remember, Kagome?"

Kagome sniffed, only remember Kikyo's words. '_Inuyasha will rip off your clothes, towering over you like the master he forced you to call him when he showed you off to his friends, even letting them hurt you and grope you like a mangy cur. Is that love, Kagome? You'll beg and cry, but it will do no good, and then the bastard will bite you again, proving his dominion as he lets your life force drip out of you like he did to me, leaking out all your power so that you can do nothing when he slams your wrists above your head with one hand, letting the other hand seek what he wants, touching you and toying with you until your body submits and he can easily enter you, not wanting to hurt that region of you too much so that it will open easily for him whenever he looks at you the right way_.'

"I don't remember..." she whispered, feeling sad at the loss. Could this really be the same man Kikyo was talking about? He was so loving, and he was sweet... Kagome shook her head. Doubling over again, Kagome held onto her stomach, her hand clasping his. "Something's wrong."

Panic echoed in his eyes before he realized what it was. "You're using all your magic to protect the baby…." He didn't bother asking why, fearing the answer. Instead, he touched her stomach gently, marveling that there was a baby in there, and that Kagome was using herself to protect them, and didn't matter if the things she shielded them from were real or imaginary to Inuyasha. He wanted to protect their child too. When he recalled his fight with Sesshomaru and a hundred other memories flooded into his mind at her words, some good and some bad, he knew that he had to do.

He kissed her stomach, but he could not bring himself make a vow to the child to always protect them. He had broken so many vows already! He stared at the ring a moment. At least there were some promises he would never break.

Inuyasha stared up at Kagome, his golden eyes begging her. "You're running out of energy. Let me help you protect our child, Kagome. _Our_ child! I was so sorry for ever having jumped to conclusions, Kagome. There's no way the child is anything other than yours and mine. Let me help protect them too."

_'When you tried to retaliate and he refused to let you by proving he could control your sex… you didn't want it, did you? 'You ruined it all.' That's what you told him, shouted at him as he held you to the bed, pumping away at you, heedless of your own pleasures and only of his much he wanted you to want him. _

'_Hasn't he said that to you? 'Say my name'. He likes knowing that he's the one that makes you moan, that he's the one who holds your pathetic life in your hands_.' Kagome's mind whispered Kikyo's poison, her eyes widening at Inuyasha.

She wanted to scurry away when she felt his hand on her stomach, but she just couldn't. It felt so right there. And when he kissed her stomach... Kagome could swear the barely existing baby inside of her gave a wave of power, wanting its daddy. Kagome sighed; she wanted daddy too. But the words still floated around in her head.

"S-spell..." Kagome managed to wretch out, before screaming in pain as images Kanna showed her flowed through her mind again and the voice of doubt ate away at her.

Her scream pierced his heart, but fed him hope all at the same time. Was this working? He willingly opened himself up to her, showing him everything that was inside his heart and his mind, and even his soul, more eager to show her that than anything else.

"We fight Kagome. God, I can't get over how many time we fight! You tell me that you hate me. And I yell back that I hate you, and I always stick my foot in my mouth, just about ruining everything! But no matter what we say to each other when we're mad, I know I wouldn't be able to live without you. Because…"

His voice trailed away. His throat felt dry, but he continued. "Because you know who I am. Kagome, I love it when you say my name. Nobody ever says it the way that you do. It makes me feel like I could really be a prince. It makes me feel like I belong. You say my name, and I can feel how much you love me. And I love saying yours, Kagome. It sounds so musical. Kagome Higurashi. I can't wait until our baby has a voice, so they can give us whole new names."

He smiled up at her, with a special smile that seemed to reserve just for her. "But I still want you to call me Inuyasha. Hearing you say my name reminds me of who I am. And that's not a demon, not a half breed, not a pirate or a prince, but just a man, Kagome. And one who loves you unconditionally, no matter what you call him."

Kagome's trembling stopped a bit as she listened to him. She loved his voice, and how honest he was. Closing her eyes, Kagome liked the thought that she had made him realize he couldn't live without her.

"I did ask you three times..." Kagome whispered, her brown eyes regaining some clarity as she began climbing out from the webs spun about her mind.

She placed her hands over his. Kagome smiled. "I want babies giving us names," Kagome whispered softly, like lulling into a light sleep. "In..." Kagome tried to say his name, but then the venomous words shot back at her.

"You raped Kikyo!" Kagome pushed away herself from him and curled up. Inuyasha lay sprawled in front of her in the grass, caught off guard. "You lied... I should never have... I lost it all to you... And you didn't... You just... You lied. You didn't even tell me about the human side..."

"No! No, I never touched Kikyo, not like that! The most I ever did was kiss her, Kagome, that was it, I swear it. And I didn't kill her either!" He moved closer, only a little bit. "Remember Shippo? He told you want happened to me? Would our little fox lie, Kagome? And yes, I didn't tell you about the human side. I never thought to. Part of me thought that you would know, being a Priestess, part of me was used to keeping a secret because that's the time when I'm at the most physically vulnerable. And all of me was so happy I completely lost track of the time! Kagome, when I hold you in my arms sometimes, I can't even tell what day it is or how long we're there, because it feels like an eternity!"

As he spoke, he crawled forward, sitting down across from her on the grass and reaching for hers lowly, laying his hand between them. All she had to do was take it.

Inuyasha's face softened. "I can count you all the lies I've ever told you on one hand. One, I never hated you. I've only ever loved you. And two, I never gave anybody to Kouga, Kagome. Because there was only ever Kikyo before you, and my brother killed her."

Kagome's face softened, but her body shuddered as she searched his face. "But the images..." Kagome gulped remembering Kouga telling her the mirror showed lies. "Sesshomaru never raped me," Kagome whispered softly, her hand touching her stomach. "I've only slept with one man." Her eyes shied away from his. "It's only your bed that I have ever enjoyed. So this baby must be yours," Kagome reasoned, then smiled. "Our little fox..." Kagome closed her eyes and allowed her fingers to pet over Inuyasha's hand, the same that was reaching for her.

Tilting her head to the side, causing her hair to fall over, Kagome watched him intently, not meaning to show the little, hardly noticeable mark left from where his bite should've been most potent. Winding her fingers through his, Kagome remembered laying beneath him as he tickled her senseless one morning, she remembered his toes and how they tickled...

"Do you love me?" she asked, still not bringing herself to say his name.

"More than life itself," he answered, ignoring the sadness that flared when he saw her neck. She must have hated him with all her being if it had been enough to start destroying the bond that they shared!

His free hand reached out and pulled her into his lap and his thumb brushed her cheek gently, the hand on his stomach stroking her as if she were a cuddly kitten. "Kagome, I love you so much that I fought my own flesh and blood to protect you. It's your hand that mine took in marriage. I love you so much that I can't find the rights words to tell you how I deeply I care for you, how sorry I am that I hurt you, and how happy I am when I wake up and find that you're beside me and it's not all a dream. No words can ever be written to tell you how much I love you, Kagome, and no actions will be grand enough or kind enough."

He kissed her nose, and then her forehead, and he felt something there. It was hard. Inuyasha lifted his head to stare at her, puzzled, almost wishing that Miroku was there so he could hypothesize what had happened to Inuyasha's beloved wife. "Kagome?"

Kagome snuggled close to him, drawing on his strength, leaning on his power to ease her own suffering. Snuggling close, Kagome found his warmth comforting. "It's the small things I remember... How at night, even if its warm or you are hot, you pull the covers over us both and snuggle close to me," Kagome whispered, tugging his robe. "You know how I get cold," Kagome whispered. "I love the way your ears feel, the way your teeth make my skin feel when they graze over them. Those talks we shared..."

Kagome closed her eyes, ignoring the voice inside of her. "Swear to me you'll never hurt me. Swear to me you'll never do what she said you would," Kagome pleaded. "You won't kill our baby and you won't harm me?" Kagome asked like a lost little child.

"I'm never going to hurt you again. And when our child is born I'm going to be right there so you can yell at me all you want. And I'm not going to hurt our baby, and you can hold it first, and then while you are asleep I'll put it to bed for you. And you can train them to be a priest or a priestess, and I will teach them about the sea and fighting and all the things I know. Shippo will be a big brother to them. And we won't stop having babies until you're satisfied."

"Kikyo touched my head," she confided to him. "That's when the cobwebs starting flowing. It's a spell to latch onto darkness in one's heart," Kagome told him in a rush, before she spell pulled her under again, causing her to go silent.

His eyes never left hers, but he was still aware of that damned thing in her forehead, but he knew that her body was trying to reject it. Inuyasha held her closer, as if the thing was some vile disease that could be removed by warmth. He smiled, rocking her back and forth.

"You will yell at me because I will tell them tales of treasure and adventure. You'll yell at Miroku for teaching them about sex and for the bedtime stories he teaches them, about how their parents and their aunt and uncle and their brother all worked together to mutiny on a pirate ship. And at first they will do as babies do: they'll be ill, and cry, and poop, and cry, and cry! But we won't mind at all because it means our baby is healthy, and they will grow into healthy adults and… and protect our city.

"I will look for a way to become human, if you want me to." He chuckled gently. "And oh, you'll raise a tempest when our little girl, because we'll have to eventually have a little girl, Kagome, will fall in love with Miroku's fine though lecherous son. But our little girl will have your eyes and she'll look up at you with them and you won't be able to say no!"

Kagome began crying and laughing at the same time. "You horrible man, making me laugh at a time like this." Kagome let out between gasps reaching up, Kagome pulled him down, knowing she was probably breaking his back but not caring. "Shut up and kiss me," Kagome whispered, feeling the webs begin to burn and fall away from her mind, feeling her heart begin to grow free of its nightmares.

Kissing him, Kagome raked her hands over his face and through his hair. "I don't want you human. I like you just the way you are," Kagome whispered. She slowly pulled away, the few last remnants of the spell still latching onto her. "I'm sorry, Inuyasha. Regardless… I can't. I cant. I... I can't be with you anymore, because... I would never have fallen into that spell if I didn't already have doubt in me. I... Inuyasha, you cause a darkness in my heart. And no matter how much light you created to light it up, there will always remain shadows. If they weren't there to begin with, none of this would've happened. You're a weakness to me... and I can't stand that right now. I just... I'm sorry. It was a dream, but like with all good dreams, I've woken up to the harsh reality that it WAS all but a dream."

She needed to break their bond. She had too. It was the only way to remain safe.

Pulling the ring off of her finger she held it out to him. "I'm sorry Inuyasha, but I can't... I love you. But I can't... I wish you never had kidnapped me. I never... Inuyasha, goodbye."

Kagome began getting up. "We'll only cause each other more pain," Kagome whispered, though her thoughts still lingered on the pictures he had now planted there. Of them with children, raising them, having a family... Watching them grow up. "It could've been bliss."

He accepted the ring; he had to. But then he stood up, and caught her hand, closing her fingers around it. "It's yours, Kagome. It's not mine to accept back. And I'm sorry that I created shadows in your heart, but you've had one thing right at least. It was me that put them there, because I never trusted you enough, Kagome. I talked to you, but never about serious things. Never about children, or about my brother, or how you would feel when out babies had claws and puppy ears…."

He took in a deep breath, his hand slowly tightening around hers, as if trying to hold on to her a moment longer. His gold eyes were intense as he stared up at her. "I won't stop you from leaving me, Kagome, but I will stop it from being here, and now. Wait until we get back home. Stay with me until then, until Miroku opens up the portal and I can make sure that you're safe. And Shippo can stay with you, because you're a better role model for him than I am. But… But I…I want you to bite me, Kagome!"

Inuyasha stared at her, his expression serious, and his voice was tight as he straightened. "This is still our baby, and I won't let them be raised without a father." He kissed her lips gently, his hands rubbing her arms. "Besides, they say that if somebody comes back to you, then it means they really do care for you, and I need to give you that chance to fly away. I already had mine, and I didn't even flap my wings. You should at least be able to stretch yours."

Kagome caressed his face and watched it, as though she could etch its very being into her memory. "You..." Kagome leaned her forehead against his, her lips kissing his. "The spell is still inside of me. Take it out." Kagome asked of him, her fingers untying his robe. "Help me." Kagome begged. "Then we'll sit, and we'll talk about how I want us to have kids. With puppy dog ears and yellow eyes, claws and all." Kagome sighed, "I want us to talk about how much I love you... How we clipped each others wings and are happy to be grounded. Aren't we?" Kagome asked falling into his arms. "The land is killing me." Kagome confessed. "And I want to heal it."

"You're not making any more sense to me, Kagome," he confessed. She sounded like she was sick, disoriented with a fever. "I don't know how. How can I take it out?" His words paused when she kissed him and he kissed her back, barely able to contain himself. Inuyasha didn't want to frighten her away, but at the same time he needed her. He let her have complete control, opening his mouth to hers, and pausing when she pushed his shirt off his shoulders. "I want you to heal the land too. I want to see this world become as bright as the human one, to let you work your magic on them the same way you worked it on me."

Kagome smiled tiredly and wrapped her arms around his shoulders. "If I don't break the spell," Kagome whispered pausing to kiss him, "I'll lose the baby. I can't keep channeling energy," Kagome explained, needing him to help her now, more then ever. More then on the pirate ship with the demons, more then against Sesshomaru, more then when her cake caught fire in the stove. Kagome sighed. "I can't focus my thoughts, the more webs I slice through the more grow," Kagome whined.

Kagome licked the skin around his collar bone and leaned her forehead against his shoulder. Running her fingers down his arms, to his hands, Kagome brought them up to her face and curled one hand up, so that only the index finger remained pointing. "I want to heal the land with you. Just like we work it together at home." Kagome dipped his finger into her mouth and sucking on it slowly, before pulling it out and running his nail in circles on her forehead.

"You still need to do a lot of fixing around the house." Kagome reminded, though another false memory tried to ruin that one. "It's up to you." Kagome told him, showing him the most belief one could ever offer another person, she placed her life and that of their baby in his hands. She land her hands fall away, his finger covering the pulsing _thing_ in her forehead. "Save us, my prince."

Drawing her close, he tilted her backwards, letting his lips run over her exposed neck as their made their way up to her forehead. He suppressed growling all the way, his throat softening his growls into something softer, and he purred, even though he didn't know why, except that it made him feel happy. He smelled her the whole way, but his passion and naivety were rolled together so tightly that all he could smell was Kagome. He couldn't even smell himself; just her and his child.

When he passed her neck his teeth hovered over the pale mark on her neck. His instincts told him to bite her again, to strengthen their bond further, but his heart told him no. If he healed her, there would be no need to mark her flesh because Kagome's heart would be free and it could fix everything.

Oh, he wanted to have her call him her prince again!

Inuyasha's lips brushed her cheek, and his lips kissed her closed eyes, in between mumbled apologies, fearing that this might hurt his precious wife. Finally, his mouth touched over her third eye, and it could feel the despicable jewel there. It pulsed and wriggled like a thing alive, squirming and straining to delve deeper into her mind. His heart ached for her. How strong Kagome was to fight something so slippery and suggestive! He kissed her forehead, and the stirring stopped, yet still it sat there and pulsed, like a wolf hiding in the shadows for his prey to turn before he pounced. Inuyasha kissed her third eye again, and his lips grazed the skin as they had over a month ago, to her neck. "I'm sorry, Kagome…" He mumbled, his nose tickled by the bangs of her hair, and kissed that spot fiercely, trying to draw the jewel out with his kiss.

Something cold and steaming hot slid between his teeth. Still holding Kagome with one hand, he held out his other hand and spat the jewel out. He let out a hiss of surprise when the shard move. Kagome had been right about spider webs. Eight ghastly legs sprouted from the shard at various angles. The mandibles clicked rapidly, and before Inuyasha could get over his shock, the teeth like protrusions dug into his flesh, seeking out the dark shadows lurking in Inuyasha.

He dropped it like it was a hot amber. He splattered on the ground before collecting to its feet, hissing and spitting like a wild animal. Without even thinking about it, Inuyasha drew his sword and stabbed it cleanly. All the time he kept Kagome from seeing it.

Inuyasha straightened, staring at his wife. "Kagome?"


	12. The Heartbeat

**AN**: An update, as promised! Seven pages of pure, unadulterated fluff. The plot shall return next chapter. So will Sango and Miroku. And more fluff. And… no cliffhanger! Ta-da!

Drake220: This one has more fluff… Em and I wrote it on the bus to Toronto. Sad that we can write and still have it legible, ne?  
CowgirlUSA: He just didn't know if she was okay or not. That's all.

* * *

**Chapter Twelve: The Heartbeat**

"Kagome?"

Kagome was fast asleep. There was a drop of blood on her forehead which he quickly wiped away. Her eyes were peacefully closed, her breathing light and peaceful. He couldn't help but smile. She looked so sweet and innocent when she slept.

Knowing she wouldn't go anywhere, Inuyasha placed his head gently on the ground. He slipped off his fire-rat robe and wrapped it around her. He smiled again. Kagome was going to be okay. He knew she was. He could feel it.

Opening his hand, he looked down at the wedding band he held. He could respect Kagome's need for a space… so he wore it on his pinky, as it was the only finger on which it could fit.

Inuyasha quickly collected firewood. He didn't travel very far away from Kagome. If Kagome—_when_ Kagome woke up, he wanted to be there for her. Within no time at all he had built a small fire, enough to light the area as dusk fell and to cast a bit of warmth. Inuyasha nestled down in front of the fire.

She blinked once, and smiled. She saw red, and you know that moment in between wakefulness and sleep, when your soul that has been traveling returns to your body? That's how she felt when she saw red. Kagome thought she was at home under the bed covers.

Another look around though, revealed she was in a forest. "Inuyasha?" she asked softly.

Kagome was laying behind him. He was blocking the light of the fire from her eyes so she could get some more well-deserved rest. Hearing her voice, he retreated and leaned over her, slowly pulling back the jacket he had wrapped around her so he could see more of her face. He grinned down at her, finding her eyes lively. She looked so cute when she just woke up. Her hair was tousled, her face flushed. Even her yawn was cute.

"Hey Kagome," Inuyasha said softly. His ears twitched and his gold eyes slowly searched her face to make sure she was okay. "Are you feeling any better?"

Kagome nodded, but rubbed her temples all the same. Her head felt stuffed with cotton. She could feel the leftovers of a migraine. "Yeah… I think so. But," she paused to look up at his concerned face. "I don't remember it all."

"You had some… jewel in your forehead. It was affecting you, controlling your memories. He pursed his lips and his ears flattened. "You said some pretty damn cruel things, Kagome…"

Kagome ignored him. There was something more important that she had to k know. "Did you force yourself on Kikyo? Did you rape her?"

Her question took him by surprise. His hand flinched away from the red robe wrapped around her. "What? I already told you…" He stared at her a moment, his gold eyes slowly narrowing. He had to remind himself that she couldn't remember everything. It wasn't her fault. "I never touched Kikyo!"

"Is that the truth?" Kagome asked, turning her head away and staring at a dead tree trunk. "I can't tell the lies apart anymore. I've been told so many."

"Why would I lie to you?" Inuyasha pointed out. He idly began to brush her hair, trying to sooth her down. "The jewel told you lies, Kagome. Not me…. okay, there was the one I told you about before…."

"You do realize that you are admitting to lying to me, right?" Kagome asked simply. "I… before I tell you something, I…" Kagome breathed in deeply. "I need you to be honest. Tell me the truth. Everything."

He stared at her and sighed. Inuyasha wrapped his arms around Kagome, lifting her into his lap. "When I was aboard the pirate ship, I never took girls like the other pirates. It was disgusting. I hated it. But what could I do? Fight an entire ship of demons? Go against everybody? Fight Sesshomaru?

"And then I met Kikyo. Someone brought her onboard and I wanted her. She was a priestess. I don't know how they managed to catch her." He pursed his lips as he thought, his voice tightening. "I didn't even just want her. I didn't want anyone else to defile her. I fought the demon for her. And I won. I never touched Kikyo, Kagome." He grinned wildly. "Kikyo wouldn't have stood for it. You've seen her. She's rather cold, that one. We began to conspire, but Sesshomaru found out. That part, I think you know."

Kagome actually found herself cuddling in his arms. There was a truth that hung with his words that eased her remaining headache away. "Kikyo put the shard in me," she admitted. "She told me… you forced her. And I'm sorry. I just couldn't help remembering how we met, I suppose. She looked so pained. I believed her."

Inuyasha nuzzled her dark hair. "I know. I'm not blaming you, Kagome. Don't worry." He held her tighter, watching the fire. "I have some pretty questionable things in my life, Kagome. We're going to be parents soon. It's better that we ask these types of questions now, don't you think? Is there anything else you want to ask me?"

"Not that I can think of right now… but if I ever do, I trust you to answer them." Kagome sighed and took his hand in hers. She shifted it through her clothes and guided it to her stomach. "I only wanted to protect our baby."

"Our baby," he repeated. Inuyasha kissed her hair. She was warm and alive in his arms. "You did a wonderful job protecting our baby, but I worry about you. You were spending all your energy on the baby."

Kagome shrugged. "Any mother would do that for her child," she pointed out. Breathing in deeply, she clenched his hand forcefully. "I…" Tears welled in her eyes. "My body wasn't being motherly though. My body was trying to get rid of the baby. In my heart, I didn't want it to! So I had to use my strength to keep our baby alive _in me_."

"Kagome," he murmured, kissing her hair again. He scent filled him, drowning out the smell of the fire and of the dirt beneath him. "I'm so proud of you," he told her fondly. The hand laying on her stomach lifted and he brought her chin around so he could see her. "Go back to sleep, Kagome. Rest now. I'll protect you and our baby."

"I…" Kagome blushed. "I don't want to go back to sleep. There's time enough for that later. Right now, I just want to be with the man that I love. No sick lies or delusions between us. Is that wrong of me?" Kagome asked, staring up at him, wide eyed.

Inuyasha laughed. "No, Kagome. I don't think that's wrong at all. But… um…." This time it was his turn to blush. "Are you sure that's a good idea. I mean, Kagome…." His ears flattened again. "You did accuse me of forcing myself on you too, after all."

"But I was _wrongly_ accusing you. I know you, Inuyasha. I know you, in here." She pressed her hand to her chest, over her heart. "I was under a spell. I was talking nonsense. You never forced me—alright, maybe our first night was slightly pressured, what with your demand that we do it in every room, but never anything bad. Isn't it enough that I was running to Sesshomaru to convince you I wasn't in my right state of mind?" Kagome asked while she caressed his cheek adoringly.

Grinning at her, his hands slid under her tattered shirt to finger the claw marks ripped into them. "I think you were given a good reason to go to Sesshomaru," he pointed out, looking more than just a little sad at the recollection. "It was Naraku, you know. I could smell him on you. He has shape-changing abilities."

Kagome picked at her cuticles nervously. "I still feel bad about it, though. If I wasn't using so much of my power for the baby, I might've been able to fight off the spell."

"And maybe you wouldn't have been able to fight it off," he said, looking dubious. Inuyasha held out his hand. The wedding band on his pinky glowed bronze in the firelight. His gold eyes were sad.

"You said that this spell wouldn't have taken a hold of you if it wasn't or the darkness in your heart already there. You said I was the cause of the darkness, Kagome."

Kagome didn't know what to say for a long time. She couldn't even recall saying that in the first place. "Well," Kagome paused. "I suppose that this is true to a certain degree… about any girl who falls in love." Kagome smiled sheepishly. "Does that make sense at all?"

Slowly, he shook his head. "Not really."

"What I mean is, every woman in love has darkness. Will he always love me? Never leave me? Does he have someone else in his heart besides me? Do I make him happy? Those are all darknesses that lay in love."

He was left a little speechless. He didn't know what to say. Eventually, he smiled and pulled his wife closer in his arms. "I _do_ love you, Kagome, even I may be too prickly to be able to do with pretty flowers or kind words."

He kissed her gently. His eyes drifted closed as he kissed her, running his lips along hers and tasting her with the tip of his tongue. He let a little sigh at her taste. It was his Kagome, all right. "You had me so worried, Kagome."

Kagome held him, cuddling him close to her chest. Kagome was trying to comfort him. "I know. I'm sorry."

"Don't apologize," he said, nuzzling her neck. His lips caressed her skin as he trailed kisses along her neck. He slowly began sliding her off of his lap, unwrapping the coat he had placed around her. Inuyasha paused and spread the coat on the ground. He kissed her deeply again, his tongue slipping between her lips as he guided her down with his body.

As she lay down, Kagome noticed the budding flowers on the ground around them. Wrapping her arms around his shoulders, she brought him down close to her. "How could I ever fear a man who kisses so sweetly?" she murmured against his warm lips.

As their kisses deepened, Kagome found herself more and more breathless. "Inuyasha," she gasped between their kisses. "I can't breath" Kagome's cheeks were flushed.

"Then don't," he answered, and kissed her again. This time the kiss was short as he quickly removed her shirt. He lifted it over her head, supporting Kagome with his large hands.

The shirt fell away, revealing the sight of her stomach and her breasts. Inuyasha leaned back, allowing himself a moment to marvel at her. Inuyasha smirked a little, slowly shrugging out of his own white shirt. Grinning, he climbed over Kagome, feeling the heat from her nearly naked body. His silver hair fell over his shoulder, brushing her skin.

He looked down at her, puzzled. "Have I told you how beautiful you are?"

"Not today you haven't." Her blush deepened. Shuddering at the cold wind of the demon world, she looked up at him under heavily lidded eyes. "Warm me up, Inuyasha, warm me with your love."

"You're crazy," he growled affectionately. Shaking his head, Inuyasha licked her stomach, kissing her breasts. He let his fangs glide around over the curve of her breasts, teasing her. His affectionate growl deepened. He could feel himself hardening at the very thought of Kagome, at feeling her body shudder under him from please. "I want you, Kagome."

Kagome opened her eyes. Trembling fingers caressed his chest and face. Her other hand passed through his hair. "Well, I am yours to have," Kagome pointed out, gesturing to the ring on his finger.

He looked down at it. "Are you going to take it back?"

"I'm going to have you put it on me again," Kagome whispered. "Marry me. Again." She narrowed her eyes at him. "Unless you don't want to."

"I'd do it in a heartbeat," he promised. Inuyasha winked at her, slipping the ring off of his finger and sliding it unto hers. "But this time, Sango and Miroku are _not_ going to be allowed near the bar." Raising her fingers, he kissed her fingertips. Dropping her hands, he laced his fingers in her hair, kissing her again.

**6969696969696969**

Afterwards, the fire had been reduced to smoldering embers. Inuyasha reclined on his back, his eyes watching the dying fire as he held Kagome. His fingers stroked her long hair and he felt incredibly satiated. It was like every limb in his body was heavy and numb, foreign feeling.

Kagome moved a little in his arms. Inuyasha smiled. His brain still felt incoherent. "Hey," he said warmly. "How are you feeling? You worried me when you feel asleep."

Kagome blushed and tried to hide under her long dark hair. She felt suddenly very self-conscious and just wanted to hide. "Yeah…I usually don't fall asleep. I guess I was more tired than I thought I was."

"I thought you'd fallen asleep because you had gotten bored."

"Yeah, well it was pretty repetitive."

"Repetitive?" Inuyasha stared at her like he was hurt. Which, of course, he was. He had thought it had been pretty damn good. Judging by how many times Kagome had… called out for God, he'd _thought_ she reciprocated the feelings. Apparently he had been presumptuous. His ears twitched, and he was glad her head was on his chest so she couldn't see his face.

"I thought it was rather nice. I mean… that thing you did? With your hips? Wow!"

Kagome beamed and caressed his abdomen. She liked running his fingers through the small patch of hair leading down from his belly button. It was as soft as the fur on his ears. Kagome was fighting back her giggles as his heart rate picked up. He didn't get her joke. "Thank you. It was spontaneous. I really liked how you did that bit and managed to hold my hands at the same time. Um… maybe repetitive wasn't the best word after all…"

He looked down at her, suddenly smirking. "Was repetitive your way of describing the insert and thrust movement?"

"Well," Kagome thought about it. "No, because you were also changing pace much more than usual. Maybe it's because in the demon realm, your powers are more… pronounced."

This time he arched an eyebrow. "Powers? What do you mean 'powers'? I have powers in the bedroom?"

"Go to sleep."

His grin was positively devilish. "I will. As soon as you do something for me, Kagome."

Kagome stared, aghast. "See? How is your stamina holding out like that? No… Inuyasha, I'll be sore and we need to move on in the morn…"

"Not that," he growled. He ran his fingers over her lips, slowly shifting until he could see her face. "You spent your energy on our baby. I, regretfully, just took up a lot of your remaining energy. But like you point out: I'm still full of it. I'm still wide awake, Kagome. And I want you to bite me, Kagome."

She stared at him, touched. She'd forgotten he wasn't as lecherous as Miroku. With a soft smile touching her lips she shook her head. "No… I'm sorry. That you for worrying about me, but I'm fine."

"Kagome." He said her name warningly. "You protected me. Let me help."

"Our baby is fine, thought." Kagome snuggled up to him. "I love you. And right now our child and your wife are leaning on you for protection. So… you need all of your strength."

He kissed her forehead, his hands running along her body as if to reassure her. "I'm going to be able to protect you just fine, Kagome." His hands brushed her neck as he looked at her scar. Since the spell had been broken, the scar had had come back with a vengeance. It was brighter and deeper than Inuyasha could remember. "Even if it's just to deepen our bond."

Kagome looked up at him lovingly. "But… I'll be fine by morning. Our bond is strong enough," she reassured him, kissing the palm of his hand.

"_Kagome…_"

"Yes?" she asked all-too innocently. She began sucking on his index finger.

Inuyasha groaned. His eyes drifted closed as his senses were overloaded with the warmth of his touch and the softness of her lips. He knew that there had been _something_ he was going to say…

She tried to resist the temptation, but couldn't. He had just corrupted her far too much. Rolling over to lay on top of him, she kissed his neck, leaving a tiny mark in the form of a hickie at the base of it.

Moaning under he, he held her closer, wanting her to do it again. His eyes closed. He just wanted to enjoy the touch, scent, and taste of her. He moaned her name again, urgently demanding her. He wanted her. He wanted her in so many ways. He had had intimacy and a physical union, and now he wanted everything else she had to offer him. God, he wanted her.

Seeing the same emotions cursing through him, Kagome kissed him again, sucking harder until her teeth joined in to draw blood.

He shuddered with pleasure. A feeling of elation took over him, slow and warm and welcomed. His head felt fuzzy. His fingers entwined in her black hair. He all but clutched her against him as she slowly suckled the blood from his body.

Moaning against his throat, Kagome moved her hair away from the other side of her neck, wanting to convey to him what she wanted.

Inuyasha was all too willing to oblige. He nipped playfully at her neck, rubbing his nose along her jaw line, searching for the warmest spot on her neck, where the blood flowed closest to the surface. He sucked on her in long, strong pulses, grazing his teeth on her skin. He even bit her, and quite hard, but not enough to draw blood. He didn't want to take her energy…. Not yet, anyway.

Kagome snuggled against him lovingly. She could tell he was doing a cover up of drawing blood, but then again, she knew why and it seemed to warm her heart. Drinking a bit, just enough to get Inuyasha off her case for tonight, Kagome sealed the cut with a kiss. Folding her arms over his chest her head nuzzled under his chin. She giggled, vibrating giggles all over from the raw energy coursing through her veins.

"Now can we sleep?"

"Yes, Kagome," he purred in her ear. He nestled down on the ground, Kagome in his arms as he continued to listen to her breathing. "Now we can sleep."

**6969696969696969**

Kagome stared up at the sky above them, her skin still feeling too sensitive to the touch. As though her eyesight was better, Kagome could make out all the things in the darkness, her hearing could pick up all the silly sounds around them, but all of her senses without exception were focused on him. "Inuyasha…

"I don't want to go home yet. I might be a Priestess and suppose to be pure and look for what's right, but as I was shown so obviously earlier... I have left that path for something different, and I don't want to let what that Naraku and Kikyo did to me go over so easily.

"When we met you had told me that you were going to help your brother take over your rightful throne again, get rid of Naraku, well," Kagome paused before turning to look at him, her mouth a thin line, still very red from Inuyasha's blood. "I can't let an evil creature like that stay in power. I'd have to chose one of the lesser evils." Kagome whispered and pressed her hand to Inuyasha's cheek, loving the feel of his breath on her skin. "We can reclaim your land as well. I know that you hate him being in your mother's home."

"We'll have to work out a truce with him," Inuyasha pointed out, agreeing whole heartedly. He snuggled closer to Kagome, laying his head over her stomach so that she could play with his hair. "Otherwise we'll just be giving him more power, and then he'll come after us… all of us, again." Kissing her stomach, he realized that this meant Myoga had betrayed him. So be it. Inuyasha was too happy to be able to say anything about his father's advisor going to work for Naraku. "What would appease my brother?"

"Appease your brother?" Kagome asked dryly thinking about herself dead and shuddered. "I think offering him your strength, which is obviously not to be put aside lightly should be a bargain chip enough." She said and looked up, startled for a moment by the owl staring down at them. "My power for healing the land? Just the very notion of more power added against Naraku?" Kagome asked, then thought about it. "I don't suppose he'd be happy finding out he'll be an uncle?"

His ears twitched. He stared at her a moment, his hands tracing her sleek muscle, still not quite believing that a child was growing in there even though…. "Kagome," he said, his voice not above a whisper as he would terrified to break the quite spell that had wrapped around their life-filled clearing. "Kagome… I can hear our baby. I can hear their heart…"

Feeling warm and fuzzy, Kagome cuddled close to him and closed her eyes. "You can hear?" Kagome asked through a yawn. "That's nice." She murmured already lost in sleep as her hand continued to stroke his hair. "Do you hear a steady beat?" Kagome asked lightly, still in light slumber.

"It's very steady. And soothing, too. It makes me think that the baby's healthy, and happy. Just like us." He lifted his head and kissed his wife before indulging himself once more to listen to the sound of his son or daughter's heart

* * *

To be continued... 


	13. I'll Make the Roses Bloom

_AN: So, you know what I found? A cool quiz. __http/guru. who your Inuyasha Mystery guy is. I got Kouga. I am not quite sure how to deal with this, or why you would even care. I mean, sure, I love his amazing legs, and lets admit it, he is the only guy who can pull off that mini-skirt - No way Inuyasha or Miroku could. In fact, it worries me to think about Miroku's reaction... He might actually enjoy it, considering he is walking around in a dress all day... See, this is what happens when I don't have coffee in the morning- I start to ramble on. Anyway, try it out! It's fun! And who knows... Someone may be lucky and get Sesshy! In which case, I hate you. No, no.. Just kidding. I am happy with my wolf boy. As happy, as I hope you will be with our new chapter! Much fluffiness, twists,and things to come... Please review and let us know what you think! I'll try to update again soon, PoF doesn't have computer access for a while, and mine will be rather spratic at best, but whenever I do get my fingers to a keyboard, you all will have a nice new chapter update!_

_Enjoy the story and remember to review::skips off to chase Kouga's wagging tail:_

**Chapter Thirteen: I'll Make the Roses Bloom**

The next morning, Inuyasha awoke to an amazing sight. The grass was green, the sun was bright and the sky seemed blue instead of hazy, and he could hear animals moving. There was a bunny eating clover that had spread like wild fire, the birds were flying without fear, and he could hear the croak of frogs from somewhere nearby. The grass, still only knee high, was enough to make him feel like he was in a strange world where everything eclipsed him.

And, of course, Kagome was still in his arms. He rolled over to his side and watched her sleep, for the first time in a long time not being bothered by the fear of hurting her accidentally, or plagued by memories he wanted to cauterize. Inuyasha's eyes slipped to her stomach, the sound of his baby's heart still echoing in his ears.

Like the newly reborn demon world, Inuyasha just felt overwhelmed by it all: by his love for Kagome, by the idea that she was carrying a whole new life inside her, even the idea that he was going to be a Daddy, feeling elation and pride every time he thought of it, too grandiose for him to accept. He looked up to her sleeping face again, kissing her cheek to express the words she wouldn't be able to hear. "You amaze me…"

Kagome let out a little sigh of contentment and turned her head to the side a bit, stretching her arms over her head she arched her back and allowed her muscles to stretch and purr. It took her a few minutes to remember where she was. She didn't remember falling asleep in a sea of green. Opening her eyes a little more, Kagome blinked a couple of times, her thick eyelashes fluttering away her dreams.

"Inuyasha," Kagome spoke softly, her voice full of emotion when she saw him with his head placed on her stomach, his ear flattened over her stomach. Reaching out her hand, Kagome laid back and watched Inuyasha with growing love and warmth fluttering through her. Running her fingers through his silver hair, Kagome smiled completely contentedly. She looked like the very picture of the cat who had had the cream and mouse.

"Why do I amaze you?" she whispered, her finger tips playing over the tip of his ear. Leaning up on her elbows, Kagome laughed shyly. "I can't believe we did… well, out here and stayed," Kagome told him with a light blush, looking around again a look of confusion fell over her face. "I don't remember it looking like this last night," she whispered, wondering just how strongly the spell had affected here.

"It didn't, not really," he told her. It hadn't felt so alive last night, even though the seeds had been sewn last night. Now, under the morning sun, they could see just how much had been brought back. "And that's why you amaze me. You're the one doing all of this. It astounds me. I never thought that I would see this world looking green… That's the one thing I didn't like about being on a ship. When we were banished to that world, we… we arrived someplace that was filled with warmth and color and life. And then we lived out on the ocean, but even that was miraculous after living here for so long."

His ears twitched as she played with them. "I really would like to go back to my Mother's," Inuyasha finally confessed. "She would have liked you, Kagome. She worked so hard at trying to make roses bloom, but she never actually managed…."

Kagome caressed him softly, a soothing look in her understanding brown eyes. "It would be hard to here. However," Kagome told him softly. "It shows her the strength of character for her to have tried," Kagome said softly, shifting into a sitting up position, holding Inuyasha's red robe to her form. Blushing, Kagome looked about for her shirt, not meeting his eyes.

"We'll help the roses around her castle grow then, and plant some in our garden at home, around the house if you'd like. I'm sure she would've." Kagome smiled warmly at him. "It's quite the woman to have raised you," Kagome whispered, and leaned close lightly brushing her lips against his. "And lived the life she did, here, with your father," Kagome said her thumb etching over his cheek.

He covered her hand with his, pressing it against his flesh. "Thank you, Kagome." Inuyasha rose one of his eyebrows, looking mischievous. The morning was still young… "I guess we should be getting back. I hope we didn't make Sango and Miroku worry…."

And then he recalled all the longing looks they had been giving each other. They probably hadn't even noticed that Inuyasha and Kagome were gone, let alone that they hadn't returned. Kouga… he doubted the wolf would care. He had a pack to look out for, and Inuyasha was old enough to take care of himself. "After all, I'm going to be a Daddy," he mumbled under his breath, his cheeks turning red when he realized he had spoken out loud.

"I hope they didn't worry, I'd for them to have had..." Kagome quirked her brow at him, as she pulled on her shirt, and stretched her hand through the sleeve. "What were you thinking?" Kagome asked, curious to know what led to that sentence. Then blushing furiously, Kagome knotted her brows together and threw Inuyasha a look. "Turn around," she mumbled, her fisted hands holding on tightly to her pants.

"Not like I haven't seen more of you than that…" Inuyasha mumbled, retrieving his own pants. He stretched before he began to dress himself, watching the bunny eat the clover and thinking of how hungry he was. Damn it, he was not going to eat the bunny!

Hunting through the grass to find his white shirt, he smiled. "I'm just happy," Inuyasha told his wife, even his golden eyes sharing in the proud grin he sported. It still hurt slightly that Kagome hadn't told him that she was pregnant, but… what was in the past was in the past. Inuyasha just had to look to the future, and, of course, the present. He picked up his jacket, but pulled Kagome into his arms before he put it on. His nose brushed her neck, making her giggle.

"You know, I thought of another lie I told you. I may love you, but I'm also going to love this baby as much as I love you. I'm going to shower them with so much affection that you might just be jealous, Kagome. And then well have more children, and I'll love each and every one of them all just the same and you'll have to be the one to barricade the door, my Kagome."

He spun her around, lifting her feet off the ground and twirled her once and twice. Inuyasha laughed. "And we'll have to come up with whole new ways to fill our nights with each other, because we'll have healthy children to watch out for," he teased. "I mean… how would we ever explain to them what we do when we couldn't even explain it to our little Shippo?"

Kagome laughed and blushed furiously. "Inuyasha," Kagome whispered softly, her arms holding him tight as she felt the sensation of flight, while being twirled around in his arms. "We'll just tell them, mommy and daddy want private time," Kagome said, finally back on her feet stepping back out of his tight grip and pouting. "You know, you're starting to make me feel bad about the baby. I don't want to be jealous of my own child..." Kagome said and began walking off in the way, she hoped, led to Kouga's den.

"Maybe we should just wait, a long time, till we have another," Kagome tossed over her shoulder, as she crouched quickly to pick up her bow and arrow, then stop suddenly and look around suspiciously. "This forest might be deceiving, but this is still a demon world," Kagome whispered, looking back at Inuyasha as she slowly stepped around in her place to face him. "Did you hear anything?" Kagome asked before a huge beast lunged at her from the bushes and with snapping teeth pushed her back, his paws on her shoulders, landing her back hard on the ground.

"Oi! Wolfie! Down!" Kouga's voice rang clear as he pushed through the bush. "Sheesh, could you guys have gone any farther- Wolfie. I said off." Kouga hurried over embarrassed, and picked the wolf up by his hind legs, pulling him, and his curious snout, away from Kagome's crotch. "Nothing interesting there," Kouga lied gruffly, and couldn't help but give a feral grin when the wolf reached his nose out to sniff Inuyasha.

"Matching scents, huh?"

Letting go of his sword, Inuyasha helped Kagome up, glaring at Kouga, even though his lips teased with the idea of a smile. "So is this a search party or were you guys out hunting?" he demanded.

Kouga scratched the hair under his bandanna, his face turning cocky. "Me? Go out and look for a shit faced dog like yourself, Lord Inuyasha? Don't make me laugh. Although dog shit like you would need help in chasing down your own wife, wouldn't you?"

"At least I have a mate, wolf piss," Inuyasha countered, now his voice suppressing a laugh. He and Kouga shook hands. "It's glad to see that you don't harbor any bad feelings for me deciding to stay in the human realm, Kouga. How have you been lately anyway?"

The wolf demon's smile vanished. "Hungry. We're currently camped out between gangs, Yasha." The topic was too serious for Kouga to make fun of Inuyasha. "Naraku to the east, and your half brother to the west. The land's been picked clean. If this conflict gets any worse, we're going to have to leave. I don't want to do that. This is our land, our territory, and aristocrats or not, they have no right to decide to play war right in the middle of my fucking land."

He opened his mouth to answer, but Kagome nudged him. Knowing exactly what she wanted, Inuyasha made a tiny sigh that earned him a glare. He'd get that later…. Recalling the frogs he had heard, Inuyasha changed what he had been about to say. "Kouga, is there a river or something around here, somewhere were we can go and bathe?" Recalling the first spring they had met, he thought of fish. Kagome hadn't been sick this morning: either it really had been the fish or else it didn't happen every morning.

Staring at them, Kouga hid a grin and again nudged his companion to be silent and still. "There's one not too far away. I'll say this for humans: at least they're clean. Better than say, frog demons."

"And that would be the closest Kouga can come to a compliment," Inuyasha muttered to Kagome, knowing full well the demon could hear him.

Ignoring Inuyasha, Kouga looked at Kagome. "I'm glad to see that you're feeling better. Everything all right with you two? I mean, if you're not fighting, then somebody's chucking shit at me, or else you two are making out worse than your Miroku and the slayer. Whom, by the way, are not allowed spending another night in the den. They're sleeping outside next time you guys come looking for a place to crash!"

Kagome blushed and looked away from Kouga, inching closer to Inuyasha and winding her hand through his. "I'm feeling better now. Unlike you, Inuyasha took the spider out that caused the webs," Kagome retaliated and shook her head. "I'm better," Kagome promised and nudged Inuyasha, slowly feeling Inuyasha's arms encircle her and his hands lay protectively on her stomach. Kagome couldn't help but turn even redder. "We're all better. Um... what happened between the two? Are they alright?" Kagome asked, missing the main point of WHY they were to sleep outside of the den.

Kouga glared at her like she was a brainless idiot. Which to him, was more or less the equivalent of being a human married to a doggy half breed. "Because their panting kept all of us up!" Then he thought of their scent…. "Okay, I suppose that they can stay inside next time, considering that they also made most of the women in my pack… should I take you to the spring now?" he asked, jumping topics. "I can go and get Sango and Miroku for you and then they can shower too. They need it." His nose wrinkled.

Inuyasha grinned. "That'd be great."

Kouga sent his companion to go and get Miroku and Sango, and Kouga himself led them to the spring. When Inuyasha saw the steam rising from it, his smile grew. A hot spring would mean that Kagome wouldn't complain about the cold. Hot water was good. Kouga waved them goodbye, telling them that Inuyasha could find their own way back to the den and that they damn well better come back this time, because he wanted to talk to Inuyasha later.

Looking at his wife, he stroked her hair. Inuyasha couldn't stop touching her, at least in some small way: a hand on her back or shoulder here, his knuckles brushing hers as they walked. "So… shall we?"

It was Kagome's turn to purr as she leaned into him, enjoying the stolen caresses. "Is it completely wrong of me to be so in love in someone?" Kagome asked in a sigh, her eyes still closed as she leaned against him. Turning around in his arms, Kagome threw her arms up around his neck and hugged him close. "It is not the sex," Kagome told him and wrinkled her nose, knowing that would be a bruise to any male ego and quickly wanting to amend. "Though it is great," Kagome added quickly, "But it's your heart. I love it so much." Kagome whispered, her fingers playing with the shorter strands of his hair. "Is it wrong of me to think how a half demon fulfills the missing part of my soul?" Kagome whispered in question, before letting go and sitting by the spring bank, dangling her feet in the warm water and practically purring.

Even though the parts between them reversed, especially in this world where Inuyasha seemed so much... more. Carnal. Real. Feral. Wild. Kagome was still the one who could be as easily pleased as a puppy.

"Stop nudging me!" A once monk's voice rang through the air. "Stupid mutt, get your nose out of there!" he yelled finally stumbling forward and quirking a brow at Inuyasha, then Kagome. "Yo," he said shortly, and put Sango, whom he was carrying in his arms down.

"If he annoys you, smack him. Kouga'll understand," Miroku promised, with a last glare at the wolf who led them. "Where the fuck have you two fucking been? We've been fucking worried!" Miroku yelled, then saw both their looks and groaned inwardly.

"You know, if you keep on giving us that reaction, I'm never going to lose the 'I had sex with my wife' look," Inuyasha told his friend, his favorite part of the saying the 'with my wife' part.

Sango sighed with relief when she saw the water. Unlike her husband, she had known deep down that Inuyasha and Kagome were safe. Maybe not back together, but safe for sure. Inuyasha would never let anything bad happen to Kagome that would actually put her in danger, and Kagome would never hurt Inuyasha.

Just like she could never hurt Miroku.

"I hope that you're not going to swear like that in front of our son, Miroku," she pointed out, digging through the knapsack she had brought with them from Kouga's cave. She found a bar of soup and a small container of shampoo and sighed with relief. "Kagome obviously did the packing."

Pulling at his shirt as he tried to restrain from tossing Kagome into the pool of hot water, Inuyasha shrugged. "I still maintain that all I need is the sword."

Kagome huffed. "You say that because I brought the supplies for the fire that you grilled your fish over," Kagome told him proudly, throwing her head back at him. But her smile faltered. "Things are fuzzy after that," she whispered rubbing her temple, before jumping out of the water and rushing to Sango, bare feet padding through the grass, and as though the droplets of water from her feet were the essence of life, the grass grew lush and thick.

"Sango! Are you alright? I mean, we came to get you and I... I'm so sorry I forgot. Are you well?" Kagome asked feeling ashamed now that she enjoyed Inuyasha's company at night, rather then worrying about her friends' wellbeing.

Miroku, who was sitting now on a boulder, threw Inuyasha a worried look. 'You sure she's ok?' he mouthed to his friend, before looking back at Kagome, who just seemed very lost and out of it. Putting on his poker face, Miroku grinned at Sango. "Is that your polite way of telling me there is a son on the way?" he joked, while whittling a piece of wood.

"It's what you asked for, but we can't be sure until they are born," Sango teased. She took Kagome's hands and smiled at her friend. "I'm perfectly fine. And from what I've been hearing, you really don't want to know what happened after they cooked supper. Don't worry about me. I'm not Sango for nothing, Kagome. No prison can hold me for very long. Oh… and I got to meet Kirara. She's around here somewhere. I think she's actually hiding right now, because of all the canines around here."

Miroku broke his stick. "W-what?" Miroku asked gaping at his wife. Had he understood her correctly? Why the hell were his hands sweating? Miroku wondered and then added onto that same thought, 'why in the hell is my heart pounding?' "They?"

Sensing, that she should leave Sango and Miroku to themselves for a couple of moments, Kagome smiled warmly at Sango, her hand squeezing hers. "I'm sorry I wasn't there," Kagome said, and blushed. "But I am happy you are still your fighting self. You aren't hurt are you?" Kagome asked knowing that if she was, Miroku would've kicked the whole den out to tend to her, rather then just... Kagome arched her brow. "Sango, with people around?" She 'tsked' her tongue.

"Don't worry about it so much, Kagome. Don't feel guilty," he said, knowing exactly what she was thinking. Inuyasha wasn't as clueless about his wife as he seemed, at times. "Everybody is allowed to need some time to work things out on their own. Or with other people. Isn't anybody going to enjoy the damn water?"

Seeing as how nobody else was making a move to undress as he was –Sango still peering through the supplies and making comments now and then- Inuyasha rolled his eyes. Picking Kagome up in his arms, he kissed her gently… before he jumped into the water, still holding him in his arms. And he was still wearing his pants.

Feeling herself sinking for a moment, before being pulled against him, Kagome spurted water and shook her head like a dog, trying to get the water soaked bangs out of her eyes, her hands rubbing the droplets away from her face. Facing him, Kagome spat out the mouthful of water she had in her mouth in his face before sputtering. "Lovely! I'm clothed! Inuyasha, now I'm soaking wet! And... Ooo... There are even warmer undercurrents..." Kagome whispered loving the warmth.

He let go of her to keep himself afloat with his hands, settling her into his lap. Inuyasha grinned at her. "I told you it was nice."

Without warning, she jumped Inuyasha pushing him under and grinning proudly at Miroku and Sango. "How long can inu-demons stay under water without air?" Kagome questioned, giggling when she felt him attempt to tickle her through the wet clothing. "I believe my pirate prince has met his match!"

Sango giggled and sat on the boulder next to Miroku, watching Kagome and Inuyasha in the water. Oh, she'd give him five seconds before he threw her in there with them. "What'd I say that made you stutter?" she asked honestly. She kept replaying it, but the only thing she could think of was that he was freaking out because she said 'they', but what else was she supposed to call an unborn baby? It? She didn't think so!

Inuyasha gasped for air when Kagome finally let him up. He was shocked that his sweet little Kagome had tried to drown him, but it turned into a game soon enough. When she laughed and went to push him under again, he willingly went along, and started to pull at her shirt this time instead of tickling her. He'd show her what a pirate prince did when push came to shove!

Miroku gritted his teeth hard enough to break his molars. Seeing Inuyasha and Kagome were busy with the inane game of trying to drown each other, Miroku grabbed Sango by her hips and swung her around to face him. Knowing quite well he had just moved her from sitting to standing position, that's why he held her so tightly, to make sure she didn't fall. His fingers grazing over her hips and down to clench her buttocks, Miroku glared. "Don't play games woman... Are you trying to tell me you're pregnant?" Miroku asked, unable to fully hide the hopeful look in his face.

Kagome gasped when she felt Inuyasha's hands somewhere where they really shouldn't be, not with their friends so close by. Kicking at him, Kagome felt his clawed hand close around her ankle and pull her down, with just enough time to catch a breath Kagome was under the water and staring at him, the way his silver hair floated around him like a storm cloud. Wagging her finger at him, Kagome lightly smacked his hand away from her chest.

Sango was grinning too hard to slap Miroku, so she just patted his cheek lightly. "I don't know. I mean, it's only been… three days since I stopped taking my glass of sake before having sex with you, and it might not even be the right time of the month. We'll know when Kagome can sense something or Inuyasha can smell something. But until then, don't you think that I should start trying to get you out of the habit of swearing now, Miroku?" She kissed him softly, letting her lips linger over his as she talked. "I'll become with child sooner or later, Miroku. We just have to keep on doing what it is we've been doing since we agreed to have kids."

Miroku sighed and placed his forehead against Sango's collar bone, his eyes open and looking down at the ground. "You're right. I'm sorry. I was jumping the gun," Miroku sighed and clung her closer to her. He just was too eager to have a son. His hand inching over her derriere, he wondered when he should tell her about the small problem he had recently found out about his little 'demon' deal. "Oh, we'll continue," Miroku teased lifting his head up to her. "Don't worry. If Yasha with his 'does this go here?' attitude can do it, so can we," he joked.

Swimming away before she could dunk him again, Inuyasha worked at removing the rest of his clothes, which was made slightly more difficult by the fact that he had to tread water in the deeper area he had escaped into. Finally, he managed to do it, and flung his pants and underclothes up by where Sango and Miroku were sitting. "Honestly! We're all adults here! I don't see what the big deal is!"

Sango nodded in agreement and pulled her melancholy yet hopeful spouse up off his buttocks. "That we all are, aren't we, Miroku?" she asked sweetly before throwing him in.

Kagome stood on the side as Miroku's fallen body sent waves of water flying. A moment later, the Priestess was cracking up with laughter. Then she turned to Inuyasha and loosened her shirt, just to prove her point, she began unwrapping the shirt. "Since we are all adults, you don't mind Miroku...?" Kagome asked, motioning to her slowly loosening shirt.

Miroku broke the surface and flung his hair back. "Wench!" Miroku swam to the shore and grabbed her ankle, pulled her in. Only with apt skill, he caught her around her hips pressing her to him and kissing her, before her face hit the water. Looking at Kagome and Inuyasha, Miroku shrugged. "My Lady is feisty," he laughed then grumbled when he felt a kick where one really shouldn't have delivered. Especially after the enticing thought of his wife bathing... "Ugh."

"Oh, sorry!" She had meant to aim for the shin, and forgot how hard it was to aim in water.

Kagome then looked over at Sango. "Does this mean I get to find out for myself about all you've been telling me of your husband?"

Inuyasha swam back to Kagome, and wrapped his arms around her, kissing her gently. "Okay, well, I hadn't really though of him looking at you, or you and Sango trading notes… you two have been trading notes this whole time, haven't you?"

Sango looked up from where she was tending to Miroku; which basically meant that she was apologizing to him in between quickly lengthening kisses. "Contrary to belief, women have a sex drive, and a sex life, and we talk about it as much as men do, we just don't admit to it."

Kagome nodded. "What she said," Kagome said then patted Inuyasha's shoulder reassuringly. "We get points for times. They get points for creativity," Kagome informed him proudly. Shying away slightly, Kagome shook her head. "We've been trading notes just as much as you and Miroku." Kagome said quirking up her brow. "You have, haven't you?"

Miroku groaned, thankful for the water helping to ease his pain. "Sango..." Miroku gritted out. "Just how hard did you mean to kick my shin?" He muttered.

"Well, see love, part of it was the force I put in because water can be a strong resistant force…."

Inuyasha ignored them, at least momentarily. "I might have said something now and then… all of it was good! And no details, because that would have been ungentlemanly." He stopped and paused about that for a second. Inuyasha still wasn't all that much of a gentleman, hence with the swearing. "Well, even pirates have their limits. But we can find our own place, just the two of us…."

Sango, recalling the conversation they had had before she'd taken a bath, and knowing that the implication of sex would always cheer up Miroku, was thinking the exact same thing. She smiled at him. "Didn't you say something about washing my back, Miroku?" Sango wiggled the soap at him.

Kagome smiled at him warmly, liking him protecting their privacy. Snuggling close to him, even through her clothes Kagome could feel his perfectly chiseled body. She loved the feel of his strong muscles around her, holding her close. He still felt warmer to her then even the warm spring water. "Just the two of us would be nice." Kagome said nipping his lip with her teeth and then just holding him close, enjoying how he spun her about in the water, splashing water about.

Miroku was sure his jaw was clenched shut. "Woman. Thy name is evil," Miroku told Sango, when he looked down at his lap. "Do you know how much pain you are.." Miroku closed his eyes, enjoying the sensation of his hands squeezing her rear without a slap. "Back? Yes. Yes. I can wash your back... lather it up good and well," Miroku said huskily.

"The pheromones in this pool could populate Kouga's entire clan," said a cold disgusted voice; the strong powerful voice of the Lord of the Western Lands, Sesshomaru. "It's disgusting," he said coldly, his eyes pinning his own half-breed mark of shame on the family.

Kagura stepped from behind him into view, and narrowed her eyes at the men. Enjoying the scene. "Oh. I don't know. It's the best show I've seen for a while." She smirked cruelly.

Glancing at her, the tiniest of smiles tugged at his lips. "I'll keep your watching fetish in mind… for next time."

Inuyasha smiled at his brother, his pinched brows suggesting that it was more of a grimace, and suppressed a shudder. "Hello, Sesshomaru."


	14. Odd pack

**Chapter Fourteen:**

Inuyasha glanced at Kagome, and gently shuffled –floated- her behind him. ….How far away was his sword?

Sango was having the same reservations when she spotted Kagura. She suddenly wasn't sure which one she would hope to kill first: Kagura or Sesshomaru? Sango all but snarled at the female demon. "I should have known that somebody with an ego like yours couldn't get sucked into a wind tunnel that easily. I suppose I was being too hopeful to pray for your demise."

Kagura smirked. "Wind tunnel. Wind demoness who controls the winds. Gee. What are the odds something related to the winds, would kill me?" Kagura asked viciously, the smirk never once leaving her blood red lips. Raising her chin aristocratically, Kagura folded her arms over her chest and tapped her fan impatiently over her forearm. "Go on and pray dearie," Kagura commented dryly, looking at Sesshomaru beside her and feeling a shiver crawl up her spine. When he was this cold... It usually didn't take more then a second before Kagura realized the blood splattered on her was from his victim.

Sesshomaru never lost his aristocratic stature as he sat on a boulder and stared at them all, not so much as an inch of his persons getting wet. "I must admit, it's so bothersome to always have to try and rectify the mistakes my brother makes. When one of the wolves from Kouga's tribe told me that a pregnant human was claiming that I was the father of her child, I was more than just slightly surprised, but at least my suspicions were correct. Having a fun time in the demon world, human?" He was completely ignoring Sango, but Sesshomaru's tone and expression clearly indicated that he was not favoring Kagome with questions to be hospitable.

Kagome could feel Inuyasha beside her, and it lent her already strong will strength. "The hospitality of your world is somewhat lacking," Kagome replied, meeting the demon's eyes and not blinking or shying away once. For all of her blushes of earlier, Kagome was now showing the same strength she had shown Inuyasha she possessed on the ship. "As for the father of my child... It seems your information has been misleading," Kagome said, licking her lips hoping that she could play this next part well. "Just the way Naraku wished it to be."

Miroku caressed Sango and gave her a look to be ready to pull her knife out of her boot. Standing up, Miroku ignored both demons and lowered his head thoughtfully while he trudged out of the water. Raking his hand through his hair he tossed it back and away from his face. Now on solid ground, where he could fight better, Miroku stood silently, on the defense, his hand innocently enough toying with his Buddha beads. All that was needed was one pull, and he would release his Kazana, regardless of the results.

Sesshomaru saw him and stared at his brother and Kagome before he finally paid attention to the other two. "You lost your own life when you took up your agreement with Naraku, Miroku, are you really going to risk taking the life of your wife as well?" he demanded, even though he never stopped staring at Inuyasha and Kagome. "You shouldn't have come back, either of you."

"Unfortunately, that really wasn't a choice," Inuyasha growled.

"Yes, you had to rescue the demon slayer. You could have let her died, with the loss of but one. Now you risk the lives of… hm, if the demon slayer is pregnant as well, you risk losing six lives," he drawled. "Not that I care about the lives of two humans, one crossbreed, a wayward monk and… what ever shall we call the new mutt?"

Inuyasha smirked. "Personally, I rather hoped that you would call him or her by name. But apparently Sango wasn't the only one who was too hopeful."

Sango was busy trying to get closer to Miroku, concerned. "Miroku, what does he mean…"

Miroku bared his teeth. "My life is forfeit. But not my wife's. Kagura may control the winds," Miroku then added, a dangerous tone in his voice towards the man he had followed, towards the rightful king of these lands. "But you don't," He reminded. "Speaking of Kagura," he then added. "How is life working for Naraku?"

Kagura hissed audibly. "Open that tunnel, monk. I'll make sure it sucks you in - Right after it does the demon slayer. By the way, you are looking good dear. If a bit worn out around the thighs."

Kagome patted Inuyasha, forgetting he was naked in the water. Turning back to Sesshomaru, Kagome demonstratively placed her hands on her abdomen. "Any ideas why Naraku wanted me to think you were the father?"

"I don't just have ideas, Priestess. I have answers. Convince you that Inuyasha is not the father, and a myriad of things happen. You leave Inuyasha because you feel guilty. Inuyasha, in turn, becomes vengeful, as hot headed as my half brother is, and he will come after me, seeing me as the person who drove you apart."

Sango spoke up, having been silent since she had spat at Kagura. "But by doing so, he also would have driven Kagome to Sesshomaru's side, and in a war against demons, you have to admit that having somebody with the ability to kill demons is pretty handy."

"Not when they can't use their magic, not when they're so tired they can barely walk by the end of the day," Inuyasha retorted, thinking of Kagome and last night. "And Naraku didn't just convince her that I wasn't the father, he convinced her, through mind manipulation, of course, that I was going to kill the baby."

Sesshomaru nodded. He had known that, of course. Kagura was a good spy to have in Naraku's castle. "So, say that I kill Kagome. Then it only makes Inuyasha even more angry. Not only do I suddenly have to fight Naraku's forces, but my half brother as well. I'm fighting a double sided war, and Inuyasha, as we all know well, has no reservations about killing other demons."

Inuyasha scoffed. Why should the scum of the earth mind killing other scum? Demons knew what to expect when they got entangled with him. Besides, in the demon world, very little was sacred; even kinship.

"But perhaps Inuyasha realizes he can't kill me himself, what else would he do but go and join the enemy? Hold your friends close and your enemies closer, after all. So now I have a weak and pregnant human to take care of, or kill her, sending my half brother into a frenzied demonic state and watch him take half the world to hell with him."

"Either way, Kagome would have been out of the fighting. The best demon extinguisher's being watched by a piece of Naraku himself, the Tetsusaiga would no longer be able to transform because I'm no longer protecting Kagome." Inuyasha, over the month that he had been with Kagome, had finally figured out why the sword transformed into a fang, but his brother still knew that Inuyasha did not know all of the sword's secrets, or its past. "But he still gains an extra demon for his army. Sango would die."

Sango peered over her shoulder at Miroku. "And as for you…?" She let the inquiry slide away.

"Apparently you're not as dumb as you make yourself out to be," Sesshomaru said, sounding almost disappointed at Inuyasha's display of intelligence. "Naraku obviously fears you four, otherwise he would not have gone to such extremes to try and take care of you all, to separate or break you. Either that or else he's completely confident that he's going to retain the throne and he can mess with people's lives."

He looked around: his brother treading water, the scent of his love for Kagome pouring off of him; Kagome trying to be brave and proud while her thoughts lingered on worry for the sake of her babe and her friends; Miroku, still contemplating the idea of trying to suck Sesshomaru into the wind tunnel, his fingers playing with the beads on his hand, and Sango, apparently off in her own world, trying to deduce what was going on with her husband.

They all seemed, for the one instance, completely and utterly powerless. Seshsomaru's lips tightened. "Personally, I'm starting to think it's the second one."

"Regardless of that," Sango said quietly, "we have to face the facts. You need our help. So far, Miroku and Inuyasha are the only people who managed to get inside the capital, am I right? Otherwise, if you had the skill, speed, and strength or even the knowledge to take the capital, you would have done so in the month since you came back here. But instead, your main force is camped far away from the city, and you lay no siege to it. I can't imagine that you would care enough about demon lives to avoid using siege engines. No, my guess is that you and your army have been pushed on the defensive.

"Secondly, there's the fact that you actually came to talk to us. You can't expect us to believe that you left your camp because you thought a human was claiming to have your kid. Anybody you ever touched is dead." She glared at Kagura softly. "Okay, any human you touched is dead. And since you already knew that slaying Kagome would turn Inuyasha to Naraku's side, you obviously didn't come to assassinate her. You're just using the baby as a weak excuse.

"Therefore, based upon the presented information, I can only assume that you need our help and came to ask us for it. Or rather, you came to talk to us into offering you our assistance, with all that crap about holding friends close and enemies closer, and right now, we're both. Your army might be bogged down, but a handful of mercenaries? They can easily sneak into enemy camps and kill the leaders, destroy food, let lose mounts, poison water supplies… or sneak into the castle itself and open the floodgates so that the main contingent can enter the city. That's what you want, Sesshomaru: mercenaries. And what could be better than a Priestess, an ex-monk, a demon killer, and a real demon?

"That's why I was kidnapped. Naraku knew that if he took one of us four, the other three would band together. Then he could play you and your brother against each other, and kill Miroku and I, as we have no part in the battle between you and Naraku." She again glanced at Miroku, her gaze lingering on the sealed hand. She pursed her lips, and her brown eyes hardened when she looked again at Sesshomaru. "Well, at least, I don't. He knew that sooner or later, we'd team up, somehow."

For a half a second there was a light of respect in Sesshomaru's eyes. Then it was gone, and he gave a weak glare to the seductive woman at his side. "And you said she was an idiot… but you were right: she talks a lot."

There was a long lingering moment of silence over all those present. And the quiet weighted down on all of them like a thick bog.

However, there was just so much of cricket sounds that Kagura could take before breaking the almost sacred silence that fell about them. "Well, she is an idiot. She thought she could defeat the winds, besides for one stroke of brilliance, we don't have to eliminate the other possibility. She might've just recently hit her head," Kagura remarked, tapping her fan irritably.

Kagome glanced at him a killing look, before looking back at Sesshomaru, her hand holding Inuyasha's tightly. She might be acting strong, but she was relying on her strength from somewhere. Or in this case, someone.

"This was all a trap from the beginning," Kagome whispered, her eyes widening as she looked over her shoulder swiftly at Inuyasha. "It doesn't make sense that even a small pack like ourselves could get in and out of the city so easily. Let alone, Sango who was a prisoner and myself," Kagome said shaking her head.

"Naraku might've had an agenda to letting us go but… It just doesn't add up. He would've killed you and Miroku once you were there, no matter if he couldn't used you on other fronts, helping his army. Sango managing to actually escape her cell? What good is Sango free to Naraku? He could've used her as blackmail for Miroku to work for him. It just means that all of this… But what for? He already has Sesshomaru's army cornered, what he really needs is to get the lead demon out in the ope-"

Kagome let go of Inuyasha's hand and moved forward. "It's a trap!" Kagome shouted and suddenly felt Miroku dart from behind her and pull her back roughly, causing her to loose her balance on the slippery earth below and crash back onto Inuyasha's hard chest.

Standing there looking like a man risen from hell, his eyes scanned around for the menacing laughter that he had could a drift of, which now grew louder and louder until from dark fog and parting shadows appeared a being clad in a raccoon fur coat, draped over him.

"How fun it is when the game realizes it is just that; a game," a deep voice spoke mockingly. A moment later the fluttering depth of the voice was replaced by the squealing shrieks and cries of demons being released from the sky upon them.

Trapped in a bad spot, Kagura stepped away from Sesshomaru and raised her fan, draping it open about to use it in an attack- But against whom? Before Kagura's panicked blood red eyes could decide she felt a sudden terrible squeezing in her chest that caused her to drop her fan.

Collapsing onto the boulder on which she and Sesshomaru stood, Kagura clung to her kimono and glared up at Naraku, a pleading look through her hateful stare.

"I do not go easily on those who betray me." The figure spoke coldly. "You were foolish to forget who owns your heart. Such a wonderful spy, for any side, and yet, so pathetic and weak. A waste of flesh." The tightening grew as far off, his hand reached into a magical pan and tightened its grip on a still beating heart.

Inuyasha swore, and grabbed his pants, throwing them on faster than one would have thought humanly possible. He grabbed the sword, and tossed Kagome her bow and arrows. Inuyasha didn't have time to spare her a smile, but his eyes told her to be careful.

Sesshomaru drew his own weapon. The humans had been able to figure out what he hadn't. How positively wretched. He glanced at Kagura. There wasn't anything he could do for her. Naraku was no doubt in his castle. But Sesshomaru couldn't let Kagura die like this… "I can make it end quickly for you," he offered, his voice almost sounding like he cared.

Kagura glared up at him, her crimson eyes hateful. "You swore you'd kill him! That you'd help free me! This is your bloody help?" Kagura hissed and with her last strengths, grabbed at her fan and swung her arm in a wide arc, sending wind blades at the cloaked figure.

The same figure who was too preoccupied, for the barest of seconds with the charging monk, to notice the blades before they sliced through the guise, leaving only a torn up coat on the ground and a broken puppet.

Screaming in pain, as the fist around her heart refused to let it expand with every beat, Kagura fell to the ground in pain.

By far, Sango was the one cursing the most, even though she was muttering it all under her breath. She wished she had her boomerang with her. It would be so much easier to kill demons with a giant weapon as opposed to one knife. She smiled. It was still nice that Miroku had given her one. She darted out of the water, drawing out her tiny weapon. She gritted her teeth. She was still Sango: she'd show Kagura why she was the best demon hunter around!

Not believing that he was actually going to protect his brother, Inuyasha leapt into battle, taking out the first wave of demons with a simple feint, changing his strike at the last moment. Their bodies dropped like flies. He just hoped that Kouga wouldn't kill him for polluting his lands like this.

Kagome having no time to react, simply shot arrows at oncoming demons who posed a threat, that Inuyasha couldn't get to. When one snake-like demon attacked, Kagome sent an arrow straight through it's mouth. The arrow came out of his tail a moment before he exploded and shattered, taking along with him a few of the smaller demons.

Miroku, with a hateful look at Kagura for taking the pawn before he could have his go at it, spun away and began battling the land demons with his bladed stick, fighting them and beheading them. But when he saw a special interest of the demons in his wife, still wanted under Naraku's law for murder, without a second thought for himself rushed forward, releasing his Buddha beads and sucking the encroachers up into the black hole of his palm.

The wind made her high ponytail sway in the breeze. She glanced over at Miroku and flung a demon over her back, twisting down on the captured arm as he landed before she slit the demon's throat with her knife. She risked a moment to wipe the blood off her face as she backed up, and felt a back touch hers.

She didn't even need to spin around to know it was Miroku. Sango's grin was ruthless. This was how she liked fighting: with her husband covering her back and she his.

Inuyasha snarled as a demon got a lucky hit and sliced a part of his arm. His attacker didn't have a second chance to hurt Inuyasha, and wasn't quite so lucky as Inuyasha beheaded him. The wind rushed by him as he landed on a tree branch. He thought Miroku had opened the tunnel (and was indeed correct) but saw that the breeze he had felt was from his brother, who had finally decided to join the fight.

The whip lashed out again, and ripped a demon in half. Inuyasha's face tightened, his golden eyes becoming angry. And yet Sesshomaru bothered him about being a merciless killer when it came to demons! If there was one thing the brothers shared, it was their fighting spirits.

Miroku's wind tunnel was more than taking care of the demons on the ground, much to the discomfort of the trees. Between Sesshomaru and Kagome, the ones that had appeared overhead were soon destroyed. Inuyasha took care of the rest, moving like a shadow from here to there. The surprise attack failed miserably, if Sesshomaru was truly the target. The stately demon was never in any danger of even being hit.

Still, Inuyasha couldn't help but grumble, the part of him that vividly remembers walking into his bedroom and trying to rid Kagome of Inuyasha's 'mistake' fresh in his mind. He should have let Naraku's soldiers kill him! It would save Inuyasha the trouble of worrying that Sesshomaru was planning to try that again: and a baby was just one more target for him….

Blocking the downswing of a lion demon, the gold-skinned enemy realized the hopelessness of the battle and yet still attacked again. Naraku was a hard man to follow at times, and the lion purposely left himself wide open. Feeling like shit for taking such a weak opening, Inuyasha killed the last demon, letting the carcass drop on the ground in a pile.

He looked around at the bodies. Maybe he could convince Kouga and the other wolf demons to eat them…. Glancing at his wound, he saw it wasn't too bad. He and Sango were the only ones injured, the danger at being a close-range fighter. He waved at Sango, who was busy cleaning her dagger on the grass.

When Miroku closed the wind tunnel, Sango waited for him to turn around before she kissed him hard on the lips, letting her tongue touch his before she pulled away, smiling. Oh, she liked this new way of thanking her husband!

Inuyasha cleaned his own weapon off in the water. It was too large for the grass. His ears pulled back when he looked at himself. Now he really did need a bath. He sat down on the rock previously occupied by Miroku and Sango. "Gotta love the demon world," he grumbled, working the worst of the tangles out of his silver hair. "We haven't even had breakfast yet and we've already been attacked. They could have at least waited until we dined…"

Kagome turned around and stared at Inuyasha. Her knuckles white around her bow and her expression dumbfounded. "At home you always complain when something DOESN'T happen to prohibit you from having breakfast!" Kagome yelled, but the weak smile on her lips betrayed her true feelings. Weakly, Kagome turned around and wanted to go sit by the water, when she saw the wind demoness laying on her stomach, face staring into the water. "Is she...?" Kagome asked softly.

Kagome narrowed her eyes and watched Kagura closely before gasping. "She's... alive?"

"It takes a lot to kill a demon," Inuyasha said from his rock, watching Kagome as closely as she did Kagura. "Especially one made from somebody that overthrew my brother." Seeshomaru glared at him lightly, but he just shrugged. 'He's probably been using her this whole time….' Inuyasha wasn't sure if he felt bad for Kagura, or disgusted by Naraku.

Kagura lay on her belly staring at the reflection in the water. The reflection, not hers, but of her older sister's... Kanna.

"Kanna..." Kagura rasped.

Kanna stood there, stony as always. Her small hands holding the mirror between her palms, shaking the mirror slightly, Kanna's flat eyes urged Kagura to stare into the mirror. "Come home, Kagura. You've been spared. This time." A moment later, a ripple passed through the water shattering the image.


	15. The Source of the Kazaana

AN: Here we are again! Another chapter... Gomen... Gomen... I should've uploaded this long ago... But hey! Better late than never... Which seems to be my mantra of late, but still. We will probably start uploading more consistantly from mid-September or so when PoF regains computer access... Don't worry, things just keep getting better from now on. Thank you to all of you who reviewed! Please let us know what you think of this chapter! We love feedback!

**Chapter Fifteen: The Source of the Kazaana**

Miroku looked over Sango with a soft expression. "You got yourself cut," he said, then his face hardened. "I shouldn't have let that happen," he hissed and clenched his throbbing hand with enough strength to grind the Buddha beads into his skin. "This is all your fault, Sesshomaru!"

"Mine?" The tall demon thought over this for a moment. He sheathed his weapon, and his hand began to absentmindedly –even almost affectionately- stroked Kagura's head. He chuckled dryly. "I suppose that you could regard all this as my fault, as I was sitting on the throne Naraku took from me, but why not blame the real instigator, Miroku? Or are you merely trying to relocate the blame of your failed masculinity?"

Sango elbowed Miroku gently, giving him the 'don't agitate the demon' face. Then she smiled at him. "Getting cut comes with the job. I don't mind it, so neither should you. I've never been ashamed of my scars," she lied. They served to remind her of what she has survived, but at the same time they reminded her of everything she nearly hadn't lived through.

Miroku turned to his wife and picking up some water in his hand, began cleansing her wound. "I always loved them," he whispered to her, as he began tending to the flesh wound.

Gasping for air, Kagura waved Sesshomaru's hand away and slowly, achingly sat up clenching at her empty chest, where her heart should be and cursing Naraku with her entire soul.

Kagome looked over at Inuyasha, her expression puzzled. "Made from?" She questioned.

"Our friend Kagura here is made from a part of Naraku," Inuyasha explained, though he didn't know much about it either. He noticed that Sango had pulled her eyes off of her gentle husband to listen in. The bloodied demon suppressed a sigh. "I'm not the right person to look to for information on this. All I know is that he's strong enough that he can actually make demons from pieces of himself. Like he did with Kagura, and Kanna too, if I recall correctly. I don't know how, but even I know that it's not right, someone like him creating life like that…."

He realized that he might have just insulted Kagura, and uneasily scratched his right ear. "Sorry," he mumbled.

Sesshomaru sat back down. "You should listen to Kanna. Go back for now, let him think he taught you something. Eventually Naraku will fall, I promise you that, Kagura."

Kagura couldn't stop herself from laughing in his face. "Let him think?" Kagura asked, her temper raising and flaring. "He squeezed my fucking heart!" Kagura screeched at him before regaining her cool composure and pouty expression.

Standing up and smoothing her hands over her crumpled kimono, working out the wrinkles, Kagura stared at him with her chin held high. "Your promises are worthless. I came to you realizing you were probably the only one strong enough to stop him. This is my reward for betrayal? I go back and I am as good as dead," Kagura seethed then pulled a feather out of her done up hair. "As are you. Kanna's mirror sees all, remember?" An ironic smile pulling at her lips. "And she, unlike me is faithful," Kagura reminded then turned to look down at the half-breed with disgust.

"A half breed of a human and demon speaks down to a pure demon?" Kagura sneered. "Watch your step 'prince', on the hierarchy of classes. You are filth, while I rein supreme," Kagura spat, then sneered menacingly. "You trade one of Naraku's 'creations', as you put it, for another," Kagura said her eyes fixing on Miroku. "How apt for your double standards," she flung at them and threw the feather up in the air where it transformed into a giant feather, one which she rode riding the winds high above them, away towards Naraku and her punishment.

Kagome stood in silence the whole time, before finally hooking her bow over her shoulders, crossed over her chest. "Well… He must be powerful indeed. We need to decide where we go from here," she whispered, purposefully ignoring that last suspicious remark.

Sango wasn't quite so forgetful. She glanced at her husband. So Naraku was whom had given him the power. But then… why turn against him? She'd have to sit down and have a talk with her husband. And Sango didn't think she'd enjoy it.

Pouting only slightly, not having meant to be disrespectful to Kagura, Inuyasha followed her until she was out of sight. He had known what Sesshomaru had meant. Was it actually possible that his brother truly cared for the seductive demoness? He had to admit that it was a decent, though dangerous combination: both of them were heartless, after all. "I vote for bathing and food."

His head whipped around to glare at his brother before Sesshomaru could say anything in regards to Inuyasha's simple demands. "Shut up."

The impression of a grin fleetly crossed his face, but vanished. "I was only going to suggest that you could all bathe and rid yourself of all those troubling pheromones, and then you could dine at the camp. Obviously there are things we need to discuss, Inuyasha. This is, after all, a family matter." It was impossible to tell if he was being sarcastic or serious.

Kagome didn't like the idea of having to deal with Sesshomaru. She still remembered how frightened she felt when he clamored about her and how violated she was when he tried to purge the bite from her neck. Kagome had to hide her hands behind her back, so that he wouldn't be able to see their trembling. "Does family include us?" Kagome asked deliberately.

Miroku didn't meet Sango's eyes when he finished tending to her wound and turning away to wash her knife better then she had on the grass, by rubbing it in the water. "Didn't you know that baths and pheromones go well together?" Miroku asked as he in one fluid movement, powered by love, lust and self hate grabbed Sango into a heart stirring embrace and heart searing kiss.

Sango managed let out a surprised sound before she relaxed in his arms, wrapping her own around his shoulders. She'd ask him all the questions that had been bothering her since that morning later on, after she'd enjoyed herself. Her fingers shook and a moan escaped her throat and she clung to him tightly.

The ex-king of demons glared at their disgusting display of love. "Family includes my brother, and by association I suppose that includes his bitch too…."

"Don't talk like that to Kagome!" Inuyasha roared, leaping up and pointing the transformed Tetsusaiga at his brother. His golden eyes pierced through his white bangs, suddenly fiercer than even his brother's. "She's my wife, Sesshomaru! If you can't accept her as such, the least you can do is show a bit of respect for her and for my feelings by calling her by name!"

Sesshomaru watched the display emotionless. "Perhaps you are the bitch of the relationship," was all Sesshomaru really had to say about the situation. "Feelings? You stink of pheromones!. Those are urges. Not emotions," Sesshomaru pointed out coldly, before turning off of his standing stone, and walking off onto the ground soundlessly. "It's not safe here," Sesshomaru said and walked away toward the direction from whence he came.

Miroku opened his eyes to look over Sango's face at Sesshomaru's retreating figure. Suddenly feeling Sango's hands where they really shouldn't be right now, he let out a groan and rolled his eyes back at the sensation before shaking his head and pulling away from the kiss. "Fighting really does give you an extra jump, doesn't it?" Miroku asked somewhat breathlessly as he looked adoringly at his wife, if not meeting her eyes.

Turning them however to Inuyasha, Miroku motioned at Sesshomaru. "I'm gathering we are meant to follow."

"This is just isn't going to be my day," Inuyasha sighed, collecting their belongings. He threw his jacket on, staring at Kagome. Inuyasha shook his head lightly, and squeezed her hand. "He's wrong," he swore. Sesshomaru was making it sound like all he was concerned about with Kagome was sex. That wasn't true. For some reason, he felt like he had to make sure that Kagome knew this too, as if Sesshomaru's words were able to sway her in the same way that the arachnid-like jewel had.

Kagome smiled softly, a small hurt look on her face. "I've just gotta learn not to take things to heart," she told him honestly. Shrugging, Kagome walked with Inuyasha hand in hand after Sesshomaru. "You two really are alike." Kagome considered that then quickly amended, "I mean, except that you have a heart, soul, and I love you tons."

Sango crossed her arms. She stood in front of Miroku when he tried to follow Sesshomaru. Her brown eyes were as stubborn as ever as she looked up at her sexy monk, or as he wasn't dressed as such, her devilishly handsome pirate. "Don't worry, I'll get out of your way, once you look me in the eyes, Miroku."

Miroku didn't want to. Not now. So closing his eyes, Miroku pulled Sango to him, pressing his hips against hers. "You're not going alright," he murmured against her lips.

Her heart pounded in her chest as she let his lips touch hers. He tasted like Miroku, so… why was it she felt like crying when he held her? Sango pushed the thought away, trying to focus her mind on the words that made her feel like a teenage schoolgirl doing something improper, instead of a married woman with her husband. Sango loved it when he talked to her like that. She let her fingers tips run down his cheeks, but the unwanted thoughts kept rising to the surface.

Why didn't he want to look at her? His hands were so gentle when they had cleaned her wound for her. His kisses, the way he held her, she could tell by them that Miroku still wanted her. The way her own skin began to feel warm to the touch but still break out in goose bumps made it clear to her that she still wanted him. Of course she wanted Miroku! She wanted to make him smile as much as a wink from him made her grin.

So why wasn't he grinning?

She made a protesting sound when his lips pulled back slightly, but it was almost more of a whimper. Sango was so confused! She wanted him, he wanted her: but why wouldn't Miroku look at her?

When his hands fell from her back to start to pull at his clothes, she reached down and caught them. She wanted more of this first; more kissing. Let Miroku become as confused as she! But then she felt his skin, and she knew something was wrong.

Sango pulled away from him and looked down at his hands. He wasn't wearing his wedding band. Looking at their entwined hands, and the ring still on her own finger, she felt like something snapped off from her. Sango felt so alone in the strange demon world… and so abandoned. She looked up at him, expecting to see an answer in those eyes that always changed hues, but that always belonged to the same decent soul underneath… but he still wouldn't look at her. "Miroku?"

Miroku just shook his head, understanding of that pleading note etched in every line on his face. "No... Sango... It's not like that... Sango, wait, I can explain," he tried as she backed up from him.

"Try me!" she snapped, cracking her knuckles as her shock and pain gave way to rage and even more pain. She felt tears on her cheeks, but didn't care. She hadn't cried from pain when she'd been in the dungeon, or hurt in battle, but this new pain was worse than any of that. It hurt her in the one place where no other wound could reach: her soul.

When the first tear fell... Miroku thought he was dying.

Spying on her, drinking with her, drunkenly marrying her, pleasuring her in bed, talking to her, just being with her and sharing low blows as well as actual ones, he had never seen her hurt. But now, hurt enough to cause a physical reaction, hurt caused by him... Miroku hated himself more then ever. He had hurt the woman who agreed to bare his children. Worse, she was the woman whom he had asked to be the mother of his children. A mother to them. Only she and no one else...

"Sango, I took it off when you were kidnapped... After you were gone... I knew that if I kept it on, I would go crazy with anger and want, I'd have ended up hurting someone... I had to." Miroku stepped towards her and took the punch she delivered him in stride. "I told you I would destroy this world, and Sango, if I had kept that ring on... I would've."

Her bottom lips began to tremble, and she couldn't look at him after she punched him. She knew he was telling the truth, but that didn't stop the stinging in her heart. "Why won't you look at me!" Sango demanded angrily. "I don't care that you aren't wearing your wedding band! Go ahead and sleep around, at least I know that I'm the one you love! But when you can't even look at me, Miroku!..."

Miroku grabbed her wrist roughly. Maybe a bit too strongly, and stared into her eyes with pure honesty. Almost cold, a shoving it in your face type of way. "Sango, I would never cheat on you or betray you like that," he hissed and swore all at once then pulled her close to him, holding her hips firmly against him. "If that isn't evidence enough..."

Miroku opened his eyes and looked at her, his fingers trailing through her hair. "I may flirt, my eye may wonder but this," he nudged her again, "and my heart and soul are all yours," Miroku told her. "Don't go shrugging it off to my not looking at you! I was- I AM aren't I?" Miroku demanded. "I'll put on the band right now. I forgot to place it during the night..." Miroku said, his voice drifting.

"Yes…." She felt weak and safe all at the same time. It was their first real fight as a couple. Relief flooded through Sango. God, she knew that he would never cheat on her! She knew that, all she'd wanted was to have him look at her. He told her sweet things, but at the same time, he hadn't even been able to look at her! Now that he was…. The tears seemed to vanish from her brown eyes, and she relaxed against Miroku, practically throwing herself at him. She didn't know why there was relief in her heart, but she could practically hear it sigh. Still, she felt like it was breaking, this time with happiness, and her breathing was still faltering, even if no more tears fell from her eyes.

"I don't know why, Miroku! That's what I want to know. You could never look at my face again and I could accept that as long as I knew why! Have I hurt you in some way?" She opened her mouth to ask if he thought her ugly, or if he regretted marrying her, but she knew in her mind and heart that that wasn't the case. All their conversations, all their smiles, all told her the answer to those questions was a heartwarming 'no'. But she couldn't figure out why, and so the only thing that she could think of, was that she must have hurt him. Sango clung to his shirt. "Tell me what I can do to fix it…."

"You're killing me," Miroku stated raggedly, his hand traveling through her long hair. Pony tail or not, he was working out her hair till it split over her shoulders. "You've done nothing Sango, but be perfect," Miroku murmured against her hair, his hands traveling to her rear and feeling its perfect shape. "I just..." Miroku paused, his eyes looking over his shoulder, they were soon going to lose track of the others.

Sighing, Miroku pressed his forehead to the top of her head. "You've only made me wish I remained a monk," he confessed, then took her hand and achingly pulled away from her. "We ought to be going."

"No," she said, stubbornly refusing to move. He'd have to pick her up and carry her if he really wanted to follow Sesshomaru! "Kagura called you a creation of Naraku. I want to know everything, and I want to know now, Miroku. No more fucking secrets! So, what? Naraku gave you the hole in your hand? Is that what she meant by 'creation'? And if so, then why did you turn on him? And… and why is it that ever since we met with Kouga you've been acting like somebody fucking died?"

"Because someone fucking well might!" he yelled back, forgetting himself. Looking away, Miroku's expression remained dark as he avoided her gaze and walked to where he tossed off his jacket. Pulling it on, Miroku pulled his ring out of the pocket and slipped it on. "Kagura says a lot of things. I wouldn't listen to Kagura," Miroku said harshly.

Calming himself, Miroku turned to Sango with as close to an expressionless look as he could muster. "Naraku gave my grandfather the hole. It passed down the generations. I didn't know that, only after I came to him asking to sell my soul for the power to control it. After the deal was struck I found out he gave it to my family. I was never on his side," Miroku explained, sharing only as much as she needed to know. Scorn of his stupid youthful stupidities aching in him. "His 'creation', as she put will kill me. As it did my grandfather and my father, the hole will expand until it cannot be closed and swallow me up," Miroku told her, not batting around or playing footsie about the subject. "I bought a few more years, by gaining these extra demonic powers. They help my durability," Miroku said, his gaze hard and pained. "Is that enough or do you wish to hear more?" he asked, hating the fact that he had to tell her, prepare her for widowhood while he still lived.

"More," she whispered, taking the hand in question and kissing its knuckles. Oh, she felt shit now. But she fought through it and placed his hand over her heart: this was the time to make Miroku feel better, not time for her to pity her big mouth. She felt like she'd been slapped, but she knew that however badly she felt, Miroku felt worse. Sango stared into his eyes, not afraid to show him that she still loved him and that she refused to give up hope.

Somehow, after finding out about Kagura, she found that this was much more easier to accept.

Pressing her lips against his briefly, she repeated it. "Tell me everything, Miroku. Tell me everything you know about this so I don't open my mouth and make a fool of myself. You're my husband, Miroku. If this is your burden to carry, then now it's mine to help you with."

"Your only burden is to be happy when I'm dead," Miroku told her forcibly, almost commanding. "I..." His eyes softened. "Sango, I want a son to continue on after me," he told her truthfully. "I don't want my family line to die with me." His eyes lowered and he hated this world. He hated the way the air turned cold and empty, scentless, colorless, just void. "Come now, Sango," he said holding out his good hand to her, the other he kept away from her as though it was a poisonous snake. "I'm a man with much to do," He told her, throwing her one of his winning grins.

It came short. "There is nothing else to tell, but that I love you and apologize for not telling you sooner." He pressed his lips against hers. "My lady Sango, you can never make a fool of yourself."

"I can, and I did," she protested. Sango took his hand. Knowing Miroku, he'd have both of them working soon. If not, then she would just have to start coming up with a plan to prove that she loved him: all of him. She kissed his lips, his chin, and up to his cheek, where she pressed hers against his. Sango dropped her voice to a sweet whisper. "I'm not going to accept you dying on me, Miroku. And I'm not going to start to mourn you while you are still alive. We're going to find a way to stop this curse, so that we can do everything we ever wanted, and watch our kids grow up and… and so that you can die old and bald one day, decades from now."

Miroku stared at her with something close to awe. "Sango," he began softly, his voice warm and compassionate though his eyes were sad. "Don't you realize how selfish I am?" he questioned her. "I want you to bare a child, and raise it alone," Miroku said, taking a deep breath he looked away from her. Anywhere but at her. Now that Kagome was gone, the forest began darkening again. "Sango, there is a reason I've looked the way I have since Kouga's.

"Decades from now, I hope to be reborn as a better man," he confessed, trying to find the right way... He hated himself now. For he wanted to love her and worship her, build the house and bedroom he promised her. Not abandon her. "I.." Miroku couldn't bring himself to do it. His eyes looking more lapis lazuli now then sea blue, he turned them to look at her. Into her.

"In one of the previous battles since the other day, I've lost count which, but my hand was slashed," he said staring down at the accursed limb. "Across the hole. It's unstable. And there is no way to heal the slash..." He confessed, looking away from her shamefully. "It's borrowed time now," he explained, hating to tell her this, hating that this was happening now that they both found real happiness, and where it lay- In each other's arms.

"The others don't know. And I don't want them too. I am not loyal to Sesshomaru because he is a good man. But he is a strong demon, strong enough to fulfill my dream of banishing Naraku and destroying him. I understand if you hate me now, leaving you this way, and... Perhaps in a child baring condition. But I beg you not to tell them," Miroku said, his voice businesslike.

"You're not selfish," she comforted. "You're human. Why else do you think that everybody wants to have children? And I won't be alone. I'll still have Kagome and Inuyasha. And I'll have our child, just like I'll have you. You can continue to live through me, and through him. I won't tell them if you don't want me to, Miroku. But I don't hate you. I could never hate you…."

She glanced over her shoulder. How far away were they? She really hated to perpetuate the myth that all she and Miroku did was have sex, but…. "You came back to me, Miroku," she told him, thinking of the pirate ship. Sango gently pushed him into a tree, her brown eyes staring at him intently. "I'm the selfish one. I'm never going to let you go, not in life, or in death. Even if it means that we can't find a way, and we're separated, I'm never going to let go of you, and we'll find each other in the next life, until we finally get whatever it is that we seek, what we need."

Her fingers easily loosened his belt, but she never took her eyes off of him. Her fingers began to draw designs on his chest, and Sango tilted her face up to his, letting her lips brush his. Still, she stared at him, and she began to smile. "I'm never letting you go, Miroku."

Miroku stared at her dumbfounded. But however perplexed his mind was, his body knew exactly what it was feeling as she played him like a fiddle. Groaning, Miroku crushed her to him and buried his face in her hair. "I don't want to leave you," he whispered and roughly pulled her face up for a deep kiss. His tongue dove into her willing mouth, searching every known by heart inch of it. Lowering his mouth to her neck, Miroku brushed her hair aside. "I swear I won't leave you as long as you have this mark," he whispered and blew against her skin before allowing his mouth to descend and leave a mark there.

"I'll search for any possible way," Miroku whispered, his hands steadying their grasp over her trim waist. "I promised you a house, and a beautiful bedroom, with a lush bed," Miroku told her huskily, trying to control the reactions she was causing within him. "I want to live with you and share this life. As well as the next, but I don't wish to miss this one," Miroku said in a ragged voice. "I want to have children with you and watch them grow, not just have them and abandon them, and you," Miroku said and pulled her into a fierce hug, stopping her administrations to his self. "I'm going to follow through on the chance…" Miroku told her, now with sudden decisiveness.

"If he's dead, then the curse lifts," he said and watched her, just allowed his eyes to roam over her face, while his hands held hers at their sides, away from where they wanted to be judging from where he had pulled them off of his person. "You are my dream, do you realize that? My equal on every level, a true wife in the meaning a wife should be, a partner. I won't give up on that easily. On you. On us," Miroku said, his hands releasing her to pat her stomach and fondle their way downwards. "On us." He meant in the more plural sense of the word, and then with his usual roguish grin. "On this," he said smugly when his hands reached their destination.

Hope flared in her heart. Suddenly she began to want Naraku dead almost as much as he did. It wasn't fair that the bastard fucked with people's lives and hearts: not with Sesshomaru's throne, or Kagura's heart, or with Miroku's hand. The anger was forgotten, but the hope was not when he touched her. If anything, it made the hope grow.

She didn't recall ever having wanted to bear his children more than now. Every time he told her more about him, the more she loved him, and the more she wanted to share everything in life with him. Sango let out a soft moan. He was teasing her. That bastard; that loving, caring, sweet pirate bastard! Sango licked his chin playfully, and turned them around so that her back was pressed up against the tree, lending her support. Locking a leg around his hip, she moved against him, her eyes slowly rising to meet his. Her breath was quickly becoming as ragged as his was, enticed by the sounds and the sight she was to his eyes. "I love you, Miroku."

Miroku didn't need to say it back. His eyes said enough, now that he was actually looking at her again. Her whole body shook with her love for him, and he kissed her again, cutting off the quickly loudening sounds she was making. Her nails dug into his shoulders as she felt the first wave of love roll over her. She pulled his hand away, wanting to make it last longer. She wanted to prove to him that she loved all of him, and wanted to make him feel as good as she did when she woke up to see him.

Sango helped his hands pull at her pants, and she nipped at him playfully when his fingers pinched her behind tartly. She kissed him gently, slow and sensual in her kisses. Whereas his had been like a fire, hers was like a flowing river: graceful and unyielding at the same time. She let her love flow out through the kiss, and pulled back slowly with a gentle sigh, her back straightening when he pushed forward. Sex was an art, when it was with him.

Giving him a smile, she captured the hand that carried the beads. Staring up at Miroku, trying her best not to collapse against him or the tree and drown in pleasure, she toyed with his fingers, letting hers slip over and between his. Drawing his hand to her mouth, she kissed his fingertips. She folded his fingers into his palm until only one was left. Kissing the finger tip, she let it run across her lips, parting them enough so that she could bite down on it gently. Sango wet the skin with the tip of her tongue before blowing on it. She'd never felt quite so seductive before, or so foolish.

"We're not going to miss out on anything, Miroku. Not when we're together like this," she told him, sucking on his finger almost innocently, acting as if the grazing of her teeth over his skin was an accident. And still she did not take her eyes off of him, the brown orbs taking in every facial movement he made with such detail she'd never be able to forget them.

"You are a damn temptation, Sango,"


	16. Familial Acceptance

**AN:** PoF is back! So are the updates! So are the insane fanfics ideas we are throwing back and forth between us. Emmie and PoF are at it once more! Long live the fluff! I have a Sesshomaru plushie that also has a huge fluffy on it. I felt I needed to share that. Thank you for everyone who has been following the story so far, hope you keep on enjoying it! Let us know what you think!

Dark Huntress: Thanks for pointing out the mistake... heh heh... sheepish grin Never do things in the middle of the night. They usually come out bad. But at least someone is looking out for us! Hopefully you'll enjoy _this_ chapter!

Enjoy Chapter Sixteen!

* * *

**Chapter Sixteen**

"Do you know how much I love you?" Miroku asked before continuing on with anything else, freezing his hands over her form. "Do you, Sango?"

She licked her lips. "As much as I love you," she answered. Sango let her fingertips brush his cheeks, and she smiled at him, laying the palm of her hands against his face. "You love me enough to want to spend your lives with only me. You love me enough to raise children with me, and to fight beside me, and let me still be myself…. Because you love me, I love you, and I love myself." She laughed softly, and kissed him once. "It sounds so ridiculous, but it's true. Every time you say that you love me, it makes me love you more. Is that how you feel, Miroku?"

Miroku nodded a sly, yet warm grin touching his face. "Yes, but I'd just also add how terribly sexy you are," Miroku teased, leaning down for a deep kiss.

"Sang-" Kagome stopped short and quickly turned on her heel, wringing her fingers together behind her back, her eyes scanning the top of the trees. "Uh, I was told to go get you before you got lost and all..." Kagome said, clearing her throat. How embarrassing!

Laughing against Miroku's mouth, she glanced over in the direction of Kagome's voice. How mortifying! "We're coming! Be there in a minute!" Sango managed to get out, hearing Miroku laugh gently before he kissed her again. Perhaps they should start planning these rendez-vous slightly better… But then what would happen to all the fun?

XX

'Maybe Sesshomaru was right…' Inuyasha thought, rubbing his nose, and his ears occasionally twitching. Personally, he was kind of glad when Sesshomaru sent Kagome to go and find Miroku and Sango, although he had expected them to be finished when she arrived there.

The two brothers took a pause, and Inuyasha leaned against a tree. He watched Sesshomaru closely, but was distracted when he saw that though Kagome had wandered off behind them, the leaves of the tree he was leaning on seemed slightly brighter. When Inuyasha straightened, the brightening stopped. He smiled, although it seemed more like a smirk, his mind dwelling on what he had to discuss with his brother. It was vitally important.

'It makes sense that I would be able to heal the trees like her,' he thought, thinking back to last night. Her essence, whatever it was that made Kagome be Kagome was in his veins now too. And he was in hers. No doubt that by later that night it would have disappeared, but for now, he liked the idea of being able to heal the land, like her. Inuyasha leaned on the tree again, watching as the tree pulled whatever it was he possessed out of his body, mending itself. Demons could heal themselves, but to be able to heal other people… Inuyasha thought he would give up being half demon for that type of power any day. There was so much good in that power, so much room for the possibility of helping and….

And he couldn't put it off any longer. He looked at his half brother, and his face grew serious, even slightly dangerous, readying himself for anything Sesshomaru might say. "What must I do to be able to get you to accept Kagome and promise us that you will leave us alone once your thrown is back?" He paused. "Fuck, you don't even need to accept her, Sesshomaru, I just don't want to have to worry about you trying to kill her or our kids."

Sesshomaru's expression didn't change. The condemning expression remained there, as he looked him over. "Why would I accept a human into the family?" he asked. But, knowing that he needed that borrowed strength... "I won't harm her, as we fight Naraku," he promised, hating it even as he said it.

"That's not good enough," Inuyasha growled, not afraid to let Sesshomaru see his anger regarding the situation. His voice slowed into a hissed. "Because I love her! Look, whether you want to accept her or not, she's still family, and you're still going to be an uncle. I don't want you to harm her at all!"

Sesshomaru's eyes narrowed. "You know the difficulties of being a half-breed mutt," Sesshomaru said coldly. "Why bring another into the world?" he asked nonchalantly. He was neither here nor there answering Inuyasha's question or demands.

He shook his head, his silver hair almost making him look angelic as his face softened. "It hasn't stopped me from gaining friends, or a wife. It hasn't stopped me from living. People come in every single shape, size, color; some have dog ears, or tails, or… or happen to be bastards who look like princes, in your case. What should it matter what I am? I'm Inuyasha. You may hate me, Sesshomaru, but that doesn't mean I have to hate myself."

"Of course not. It simply makes you selfish. Don't you remember the taunting? The pain? Human nor demon accepted you. Why put another being through that?" Sesshomaru asked, recalling as Inuyasha ran to people with a ball, wanting to play, and they all just turned away. "Do the unborn have reasons not to hate themselves?" Sesshomaru shook his head.

Memories he had long suppressed resurfaced, but he shoved them away again. He had better memories now. "People can change. Times can change. If my children encounter that kind of pain and rejection, then I will do everything I can to keep them from it. Besides, they'll only be a quarter demon. They might not be physically different, and people will accept them all the more easily that way."

"With ears and fangs?" Sesshomaru posed, then shrugged and looked back toward the path. "Your companions are slow," he stated and looked back at Inuyasha. "How long do you think this unholy mating will last? A demon to a Priestess? I am purposefully ignoring the monk and slayer," Sesshomary said coldly.

"It will last longer than you and Kagura," he said pointedly, the grin slowly returning. He folded his arms. "It will last until one of us dies. 'Till death do us part,'" Inuyasha quoted, holding up his hand to show him the wedding band. "When I put that ring on her finger, I put it on there with the intent of binding us together forever, and I'm not going to lose that. I'm not going to lose her. Not to you, or Naraku, or anyone else!"

Sesshomaru smirked to that. "As befitting a half-breed mutt," Sesshomaru said, disgusted by the golden band. "Do you forget how easily it is to purge such a 'binding'?" Sesshomaru asked coldly, his eyes looking dull and dead, though their power was immense and flowing. "And this is just a piece of metal. So easily snapped" Sesshomaru wrinkled his nose when the wind changed. "You stink of her," Sesshomaru said disgustedly.

"I suppose I do not care. You were a disgrace and simply continue to be that." Sesshomaru spoke dully. "Speaking of purging, how did it feel to see the mark fade under Naraku's doing?"

"Like shit. It felt better to see it return. Every time somebody tries to snap us apart, we will become stronger, Sesshomaru," Inuyasha warned, as if his brother's words hinted at another plot to try and separate them. "Bonds are as strong as people believe they are. And I believe that this one is stronger than anything else I've ever encountered. Even you can't break out, try as you might."

'Well, at least the pup is finally standing up for himself,' Sesshomaru thought and walked away, continuing back to the camp. "I managed with Kikyo. Didn't I? And just because we aren't on a ship, does not mean that when the time comes, a lesson won't be taught to you," Sesshomaru said, stopping in his tracks to actually look at Inuyasha. "On your flesh. Not hers."

He continued to walk, his senses still lingering behind them, listening for any signs of Kagome coming back. For some reason, he didn't want her knowing he was talking to Sesshomaru about this, even though he knew it had to be done. "I never had this kind of bond with Kikyo. I loved her, and I still do, for the person she was before she got brought back to life. By the way, how does that feel, finding all your work undone like that?" he smirked.

"What work? It was playful play time." Sesshomaru corrected cruelly. "I do not mind. I enjoyed every agonizing scream and every burst of blood that gushed out of her pale form. Taming the spirit until it left the body, was a most pleasurable way to spend the hot days of a summer on the sea," Sesshomaru told Inuyasha, sharing with him in the facts.

"And if you think I erred, then fine, 'teach' me your lesson, but I doubt it will sink in, Sesshomaru! In fact, I know it won't. I'll still be in love with her, and I'll still be a part of her."

Whipping out of his hand, the long powerful whips of a true demon, Sesshomaru turned on Inuyasha with the speed of a pure demon, with the powerfulness of their father. His poison seeped out of him. "Do you wish to put that to the test, little one? Because I still have a score to settle with you about that day a month ago." Sesshomaru narrowed his eyes. "As a part of the dead, will you be able to protect her?" he asked, knowing that once Inuyasha was out of the way, the child would be eliminated as well.

However, remembering Naraku, Sesshomaru retracted his powers and glowing whips. "Something to save for later."

Inuyasha had barely batted an eye. Even if he had to give up his humanity, the gift from his mother he had secretly treasured the most, he would do so in a heartbeat to kill his brother and protect his family. Inuyasha was getting pissed off. He reached out with almost as much speed as Sesshomaru had possessed and grabbed his brother's arm.

"Fine, save it for later. But I still want an answer now! Leave my family alone, Sesshomaru! You've made it clear to everybody else that you and I are related by blood only, and that even that is thin. On more than one occasion you've demonstrated that I mean nothing to you, not now that you hate what I am because of my Mother! What should you care that your half brother is living in a human world? Better there than here, right! All I want is the reassurance that you will let them live in peace!"

Sesshomaru watched Inuyasha's little tantrum with much ease. "Fine. She doesn't concern me anyway, and to waste time on her, would be a waste indeed," Sesshomaru said, the closest he would come to reaching an agreement about Inuyasha's family's fate. "Can we turn now to more pressing matters than your mutt and bitch?"

He grinned proudly, the victory meaning more to him than Sesshomaru could ever hope to understand. "Of course. I presume you mean Naraku. His footing into the roots of this world must have grown stronger in the years we were gone, if you haven't been able to force him out yet. Then again, he had four years for his despotism to sink into the soil itself…."

Sesshomaru's face remained grave and serious, if however cold and uncaring all the same. "He is pinning demons against demons. Using mutated demons. Using his strength to frighten them and bind them," Sesshomaru said, his mouth a thin line. "He himself isn't a regular demon—as you can tell by Kagura's existence. He keeps a shield up around the castle," Sesshomaru said his eyes blankly cold as they stared into his. "A shield that let you in and out."

Inuyasha tried to follow where his brother was going with this. "Mutated how?" he inquired, genuinely curious. Shields were usually more of Miroku's area of specialty, as those of this nature usually involved magic, but Inuyasha thought he understood. "So it only lets mutated demons and humans pass through, which is why you can't attack?"

Sesshomaru's grin was somewhere between pityingly cruel and painfully mocking. "He pins them against each other in mountains, for every demon killed, its strengths are drawn to the winner, until out of hundreds of demons one, more powerful and blood thirsty then all the rest remain. He has hundreds of those, who just to get out of those mountains, swear their loyalty to him," Sesshomaru explained then added on slowly, as though talking to an idiot. "He _let _you in and out. That shield isn't so easily penetrable. It cannot be broken."

"Then what? Draw him out? He'll just send demons out after us, the same way that he did just now. Couldn't you try and harness this power for yourself, Sesshomaru?" he asked. Inuyasha didn't like the idea of his brother becoming even more powerful, but now that Sesshomaru had said he wouldn't attack Kagome or her children, Inuyasha was willing to let Sesshomaru do whatever the hell he felt like doing.

* * *

Kagome's whole face lit up at the sight of Inuyasha. Waving to him, Kagome awkwardly and embarrassed looked over her shoulder, well, not look, averted her eyes at the sight of Miroku and Sango. She was still in shock that he had managed to follow her with his hands in Sango's shirt the whole time. "Um, yeah, I'm going ahead," Kagome said and quickly picked up speed, rushing towards her demonic princely husband.

Miroku just smirked and pinched Sango, lowering his lips back to her neck. It was somewhat awkward walking behind her the whole time, his hands and mouth fondling her, but they were rudely disturbed and he just couldn't sate his want for his dear wife so easily.

"Looks like this will have to wait till later," Miroku spoke against her ear, warm breathes passing over her skin and caressing it. His expression became serious at the sight of Inuyasha and Sesshomaru. Miroku retrieved his hands from the folds of Sango's shirt and warmth of her flesh. "Remember your promise," he begged and kissed her cheek, arm draping around her waist as he pulled her to his side and continued the march onwards.

Kagome, coming up to Inuyasha smiled softly, a smile that quickly dispensed when she saw his pinched expression. "What is it?" Kagome asked, looking over at Sesshomaru with near to little fear before turning back to Inuyasha. "What's going on?" she demanded, like the head-strong Priestess she was.

"Just talking about everyone's favorite demon," her husband answered. Inuyasha didn't tell her about his earlier talk with Sesshomaru. The ex-king of demons was his problem to deal with, and not Kagome's. Her biggest worry, as far as Inuyasha was concerned, should be training Kaede, and other Priestess stuff. "Miroku might be the better person to talk to about this shield," he told his brother.

Sango looked around, confused. Obviously they had missed the start of a rather important discussion. She'd have to keep her ears open to try and fill in all the missing pieces. She stood there, listening intently as Sesshomaru exasperatingly repeated what he had just told Inuyasha. Sango arrived at the same conclusion as Inuyasha had: 'What the fuck?'

This was just a bit above her head, she thought, but she refused to let that scare her away. "If he doesn't want us to, we can't cross that barrier again," she pointed out. "And even if he did want us to, it will be when it's beneficial to him, and not a moment before then."

"We make the moment beneficial for him," Sesshomaru tossed in her direction, not wanting to waste his time on a human female. "We ought to keep on towards the camp." With that, Sesshomaru walked away.

'Bastard,' Sango thought before she looked up at Miroku. Her lips slowly grinned, feeling his fingers on her hip and hearing all the words he said repeating endlessly in her mind. He was a distraction, but a welcome one. She winked at him, and leaned into his shoulder. "Demons hanging over head, I haven't had breakfast yet and we're already fooling around, certain doom nipping at our heels. Feels just like old times."

Miroku grinned down at her. "That it does. Which reminds me," Miroku posed as he began following the lead set by Sesshomaru, "of all those hours of going over the satura. We've been too busy making our own to rely back on good old foundation and tradition," he teased. "You know, you don't have to be any part in this. We could open a portal, send you and Kagome back," Miroku offered, wanting to give his wife one more escape route before she signed herself over to this battle for good.

Sango was quiet. It wasn't the temptation of going home that made Sango quiet, but how to explain it to Miroku. She matched his step, smiling at their feet. "I don't have to be a part, true enough, but I want to be." Her smile vanished from her mouth as she looked up at him, the matter too serious for a grin. Even her eyes were hard and determined. "I'm a demon exterminator: this is what I do. If the two worlds remained as closed as they have been, then let me go out in a bang. Besides, our lives are like one now. This matter concerns you, and through you, me. Even if that weren't true, I would refuse to leave. I don't run from battle."

Kagome stood there and looked at Inuyasha. "What aren't you telling us?"

Inuyasha's faltering smile kind of gave away the fact that he had been hiding something, but still he refused to tell Kagome. At least for a little while longer. "Nothing. You just got the abridged version of our conversation. You didn't miss anything but him calling me names, Kagome." Inuyasha wanted to reach out and hold her, to stroke her hair and kiss her suspicious smile, but his brother's words were suspicious to him, and preoccupied his mind. Looking at her, however, he knew he couldn't hide anything from her. "You don't have to be scared of Sesshomaru anymore, Kagome. He's never going to try and hurt you again."

Kagome's eyes still remained narrowed, but with an exasperated sigh she gave up questioning him. He would tell her when the time was right. "It wasn't me I was worried about him hurting," Kagome said, and in reflection hoped he understood it wasn't the baby either, but himself. After all, Kagome was still plagued by the stories Shippo told her of what Sesshomaru did to her husband. "We can't trust him," Kagome settled, her face looking thoughtful. "But I suppose for now, we have to work with him. Gain back your lands, have my own silly revenge, and free this land," Kagome whispered hearing the land singing out for want of life.

Now he took her into her arms and kissed her gently. "I'm working on it," he guaranteed, taking her hand and followed his brother, not the least bit eager about taking his pregnant wife into a demon army camp.


End file.
